Proud just doesn't cover it! There needs to be a better word in English to illustrate just how the tutors and whanau in the audience felt yesterday evening as our wonderful young poets performed as guest readers at Canterbury Poets Collective Poetry in Performance season.
Glad, gratified, honoured, contented, impressed... yes all of those too... maybe well-pleased sums up the sore jaws we had from grinning behind our masks.
First up was special guest and Write On alumna, Samantha Jory -Smart. Samantha spent her teenage years in the Write On whanau and it was wonderful to hear her read new poems and to see the grace with which she carries herself.
Then came our Year 12 and Year 13 poets who each read one poem ( Amelia responded brilliantly to the request for a second "on-the-spot poem" )
Amelia Kirkness, Liz Milne, Lukas Obele, Noah McKay and Lucy Barge all read with confidence and poise, and gained oohs, aahs and clicks from a poetry savvy audience!
Here they are with the other guest of the evening, Tracey Slaughter, zooming in from Waikato.
An extra treat was that, during the open mic section, three of our tutors read ( Gail Ingram, James Norcliffe and Heather McQuillan) and that another tutor, Jenna Heller, was mc. (Gail was elected by the audience as the winner!)
Congratulations to all of our wonderful poets. And that word...we're still looking for it.
(c) Write On, 2021