Dwina Gibb and I were on Radio Oxford  talking Poems in an Exhibition. Click on the link to hear Dwina read My Songbird has Flown:

Dwina Gibb – My Songbird Has Flown

Dwina and I on Radio Oxford:

 

The launch of Poems in an Exhibition was an emotional occasion celebrating creativity and diversity. It is hard to imagine a more diverse group of poets and artists. Confluence Collective who connect a huge range of communities in Oxford through music dance and poetry helped to make it a memorable evening.  Dwina Gibb read her poem for her late husband Robin for the first time since the funeral which interested the Oxford Mail.

I felt the mystery of our sameness under our skins and the goodwill and unity we experience when we create something wonderful together. To end the evening I asked all those present to write a word phrase or line or a poem board. I have used some of them to create the poem below  about November 30 in the Old Library in the University Church of St Mary the Virgin-  the first library in Oxford.

 

Diversity Dancing

by Sylvia Vetta

 Working with the words of others written on November 30 in the Old Library .          

Outside dark night

shaped by the windows tracery.

Inside

The deep and soulful sound

of inspiration.

 

Outside

Black and white; suspicion and division

Inside

No thin reedy piping chirp or tweet

Stems the flow and energy

of unity, the confluence

of this our human amity.

 

Beyond the old stone whitewashed

Will the world watch as we

on step and step and step out into the open

to be seen in the light?

L’amour aujourdhui