All good things must come to an end – or at least, a pause, in the case of Hexham’s very popular poetry event Words on the Wall. There was an impressive turnout for what masterly compere Joe Williams described as “the last Words on the Wall for the moment” at the Coach and Horses on Saturday afternoon. The packed and appreciative audience was there to mark the occasion, to hear star headliners Emma Purshouse, pictured, and Steve Pottinger, and to listen to around two dozen open-mic performers as well.

Joe, pictured left, lives and works in Leeds, and runs a separate open-mic event there, Chemistry. He returns to Hexham, where his family live, to stage Words three or four times a year but is now re-assessing his schedule. He also has a certain allegiance to Ashington in Northumberland, where he was born, and is writing a series of poems about this former thriving hive of the mining industry. Joe read ‘Barbara Goes to the Pictures’ – “it’s a bus ride away these days” – which had been shortlisted for a competition.

Headline acts Emma Purshouse and Steve Pottinger owe their allegiance to Wolverhampton’s Black Country in the West Midlands. Two fine performers who both exude warmth and positive vibes, something much needed these days.

Emma, who was Wolverhampton’s first poet laureate, won a storm of applause for her long poem about a pupil converted to a love of Shakespeare – “that piquant taste of tragedy and love … when I was still a whining, snail-paced wench”.  

She opened with her fabulously poignant and also very funny, dialect-rich poem about two flamingos at Dudley zoo, and closed with an uplifting poem about a stray conversation on a bus with a tattooed man, that celebrates our “marvellous, glorious lives”. Other treats included a poem about a candlestick with fond memories of the 1978-79 Winter of Discontent, and one about the song of the walrus.   

Steve Pottinger’s previous visit to Hexham, on a rail trip, was memorable for being stranded for five hours by a fallen tree. He told the story in the same genial manner that was reflected in many of his poems – one “for anyone who lives somewhere that isn’t brilliant” (‘There is this town’), and another ‘In praise of the hardness of market traders’ with the refrain “Come shine, come rain”.  

‘This photo with friends’, the first poem in his most recent collection, snapshots from the fall of rome, savours an old photograph of himself and his mates mucking around with a shopping trolley: “We are so young, all of us, so full of hope … I can hear us laughing even now.”   

Steve, who is remembered at Write Out Loud for his sterling work for our website for several years, also told a remarkable story, that he found out about on social media. There was a dog in Chile that joined protesters and demonstrations, until he was shot by a policeman. You will be relieved to hear that ‘El Vaquita’ has a happy, indeed defiant ending, that reflects the other side of Steve Pottinger, his unflinching anger at what is going on in the world: “There is fighting to be done.”

The rich contributions from the open-micers, including a contingent from Yorkshire, were too numerous to be listed individually, I’m sorry to say. But to give you an idea of the range, there was Julie Brown despairing at the behaviour of mums in the library before concluding that “offering a sticker solves everything”; Hilary Elder’s reflections on weather (‘When It’s Dark Over Albert’s Mother’s’); Steve Urwin’s list of lists: “This is why I rarely rhyme,” he explained; a poetic advert for his chimney-sweep skills by Malcolm Barnes; and a tribute to the celebrated Irish poet Michael Longley by Martyn Halsall.

Those other open-micers in full (I hope) were: Lorna Tingey, Ellie Box, Peter Kay, Penny Blackburn, Richard Jackson, Rosemary Schuitevoerder, Claire Lynn, Bridget Sinclair, Jane Sharp, Tim Brookes, Sunita Prasad, Chris Partridge, Alwyn Gornall, Carole Thirlaway, Joni Williams, and myself.  

The final open-micer was singer-guitarist Nicky Bray, with a hilarious song about lust in an office stationery cupboard. Before Nicky was Aaron Wright, pictured right, accompanied by his glove puppet Erasmus Croc, who together delivered a heartfelt tribute to Words on the Wall, a “literary landmark” and “a safe space in which multiple poets have slung their words”.

In closing, Joe mentioned another poetry event in Hexham, Quillseekers, in the café bar at the Forum cinema on Friday 28 February. His father, David Williams, is also re-launching his novel, Mr Stephenson’s Regret, on Saturday 24 May at Hexham’s County hotel, to mark the bi-centenary of the Stockton and Darlington railway. An open mic is promised.    

And the compere who selects his open-mic running order by plucking names from his ‘mystery box’ wound up by promising that “we will be back at some point, in some way or form” – and earned thunderous applause for all he has done from his audience.   

     

 

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