On Friday, 28th February, we had the the book launch party for my debut poetry pamphlet, "What we say is home". It was at the beautiful Seamus Heaney Library @ The Bloomsbury in London. This library was inaugurated by Seamus Heaney himself in 2011 and I could not have asked for a better venue. The launch was attended by 45 friends, schoolmates, university-mates, family members, fellow poets from MA (Writing Poetry) course at Newcastle University/Poetry School, my teachers and poets I look up to.
I shared in the opening that seven years ago when I started learning poetry, my teacher (Pele Cox) gave me this white book called 'On Poetry', saying "If you want to learn how to write poetry, read this first". That book was written by Glyn Maxwell. Then, another modern poet whose poetry resonates with me is the late Michael Donaghy. Seven years ago I attended an event in South Bank to celebrate his life. One of the speakers there was Sean O'Brien, and one of the attendees was Dr. Tamar Yoseloff. Who would have thought that seven years later, I would be privileged and honoured to have all three of them (Glyn, Sean, Tammy) attend my book launch! Signing a copy of my book for them was such a humbling experience.
We started at 6.30 pm with drinks and canapés and an invitation to explore the display table: an 'exhibition of sorts' of the objects and memories that have inspired the poems. We had a peacock feather from India, music from my growing years, the signed shirt from school, my grandfather's watch, letter from my first heartbreak, a 'fake' marriage certificate from teenage years, a bell, a ball, a rakhi, our college magazine, inland letters from childhood friends, a cahier of poems/couplets I had discovered in 1987, the dinky cars I played with...
The bell rung at 7.30 pm for the second part of the evening. After the welcome, literary journalist, Suzi Feay, opening the evening by inviting us to enquire what the word 'home' meant to us, what's our relationship with it. She read a poem of hers inspired by the word home and then we had six amazing/published/award-winning poets read a poem or two inspired by the word home: Roger Bloor, Natalie Whittaker, Caroline Davies, Judith Wozniak, Mary Mulholland and Vanessa Lampert. Vanessa surprised me with a poem composed entirely from text messages I had sent to her during the two years of doing the MA! Finally, I read for 15-20 minutes from my pamphlet.
It was a memorable evening for me and I was deeply touched and moved by the love and generosity shared by everyone present. Thanks to all who came and supported.
