Knightsbridge Poetry Readings

Our weekly poetry readings in the Knightsbridge Retirement Home have been going on now for some months. Three of us from the Boyne Writers Group spend 45 minutes each week there reading favourite poems to a group which varies between six and sixteen. The audience has actually increased as the weeks went by so we must be doing a reasonable job.
In the beginning I was very careful about what to read, trying to choose favourite poems which the audience might be familiar with from school books etc. We found they they enjoyed these but that they are also very receptive to poems never heard before so now we feel freer in our choices.

I enjoy reading poems with a bit of a story to them even if they're not the best poems in the world, such as some of Percy French's, obviously more familiar as songs. The Cremation of Sam McGee is a favourite of mine, great rhythm and rhymes and I love that touch of black humour at the end. It is a bit long so I read it no more than once a month.
We sometimes get requests and usually can fulfil these straight away from the volumes in our bags. We were asked recently for some items from Shakespeare's plays - Friends, Romans, Countrymen and The Quality of Mercy. As you read these you realise how well written they are.