Valentine’s Day is nearly here!  I don’t usually get this excited about it, but this year, my husband and I are planning a trip to the Cork Spring Poetry Festival.  Admittedly, we’re heading there the day before Valentine’s Day.  Nevertheless, we are calling it a Valentine’s treat.  There will be dinner out, poetry films and live poetry – heaven!

I’m preparing to submit a few poems to magazines in the next couple of weeks and The SHOp has been on my list for a while.  For this reason I was delighted to discover The SHOp Showcase as an event at the festival.  This will be a great opportunity to familiarise myself with the kind of material they publish.  I’m really looking forward to it.

This week, I’m making my own Valentine’s Day gesture, by publishing this new version of a poem I wrote back in 2004.  It reflects on the first ‘proper’ holiday my husband and I ever took together in Hay-on-Wye.  I hope I’ve captured our fascination with each other and with books!  Have a read and let me know what you think.  Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day!

Poetry from the heart.