First Post

 The idea behind this blog is to chart my misadventures as a writer and indeed any other unusual events that cross my path. I like the odd , the overlooked and 15 years of teaching as trained me to notice almost everything. Indeed I am surprised when my far more clever friends discoursing about themselves tend to miss things . An example of this would be during afternoon tea in a hotel where my brilliant friend, who has a first , failed to notice the women sporting wigs who very clearly were all going through chemotherapy.

I called this blog ' a poet manque' because I love the word manque.....aspiring to but not actually making it often attributed to failed actors. I adopted this title not in a self pitying way , I am too old for that but as evidence of self knowledge .

So in this spirit....I am the world's worst net worker . In  my attempts to infiltrate the poerty community I attended another poetry reading at Canterbury Library.  Again I was that most dangerous of creatures, a woman on her own ,  that seems to have the same effect on the room as if a tiger had just walked in.  Consequently no one approached me and it was in fact very cliquey mostly because they all knew each other and were doing the MA at UCK. MA s in writing my bete noir.  I do  feel that if I saw a woman sitting on her own I would approach and talk to her .  I was eventually saved by a charming elderly lady who is herself a very fine poet. Why is it I wonder that the older generation are so open ,well mannered ready to talk to any one?

Part of the blame may lie in me.Because the poets are all so confident of their works' value and indeed are prize winners in some cases, I go into 'meeting famous people mode' . This is why I feel too shy to approach them myself so who knows I may be misinterpreted as standoffish?

Anyways, the poets were excellent. The poems were clipped, accomplished and in a different class to my efforts. Maybe MA s are poets' finishing schools because they seem so polished and made my baggy old efforts amateur  by comparisons. They achieve a level that I really don't think I can achieve.  So I came away feeling firmly put in my place. Still as I exited the cathedral bells were ringing , it was a  wonderful sound.