After a fantastic first session with some lovely diverse verse, I am sorry to announce that Dobcross will not be happening this month because the Swan pub is having alterations. They are removing the wall between the room we used and the bar. I don’t think it is deliberately to stop us reading our poems to each other. I don’t think so ... In future we shall use the large room upstairs; except that next month it’s booked for something else. So please make a note now for the May 8th session at 20.00. Write a poem about it!

Mind you, why not pop along to Marsden Write Out Loud next week, 20th March at the Marsden Library, Peel Street at 19.30? Last month we had an incredible 26 people – in fact, 26 incredible people – for a packed but deeply satisfying set of readings. There must be something in the Pennine air that percolates poetry into the people; or it’s too cold to go out most of the time so there’s nowt else for it but do our maithering with a pen and paper. Aye, ‘appen that’s what it is. Entry £2 to Write Out Loud funds.

Be there or, er, be somewhere else. Whatever you do, BE. See?