CELEBRATING WORLD POETRY DAY ON 21 MARCH 2023

with a “Poetry, Ploughman’s and Plonk” evening

This annual celebration of World Poetry Day began in 2021, on Zoom, during the Covid 19 lockdowns. But this year, for the first time, members and friends gathered at the President’s home for ‘live’ poetry readings.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening with a ploughman’s supper and, of course, plenty of ‘plonk’.

The event raised £100 for the Croydon Health Charity, which the Club is currently supporting.

Thanks go to Sue Wragg for kindly arranging the programme of readings, details of which are below.

Order of Reading / Themes
Places
01.	Graham Harker	Seaside Golf	John Betjeman
02.	Barbara Harker	Prologue spoken by Peggy Ashcroft at the opening of the Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon, 1962
Love
03.	Patricia Painting	A Subaltern’s Love Song	John Betjeman
04.	Richard Wragg	To His Coy Mistress	Andrew Marvell
Friendship
05.	Mary Bishop	Bonds of Friendship	Craig Burkholder
06.	Patricia Painting	Break, Break, Break	Alfred Lord Tennyson
07.	Joe Trickey	Stop all The Clocks	W H Auden
Finance
08.	Ian Wesson	Lines Written on a Banknote	Robbie Burns
A taste of Spanish
09.	Pilar Wesson	Tengo ei caballo en la purerta
B R E A K
Some light relief
01.	Graham Harker	A selection from Roald Dahl, Ogden Nash and Spike Milligan
02.	Barbara Harker	I am going to be surgically enhanced	Pam Ayres
Nature/Animals
03.	Mary Bishop	The Ballad of Rum	Peter Wolveridge
04.	Sue Wragg	The Snake	D H Lawrence
05.	Ian Wesson	The Tyger	William Blake
Light philosophical
06.	Joe Trickey	Days	Philip Larkin
07.	Sue Wragg	Doggerel for a Senior Citizen	W H Auden
08.	Richard Wragg	The Sunset poem from Under Milkwood	Dylan Thomas
Death
09.	Joe Trickey	Do Not Go Gentle into that Goodnight	Dylan Thomas
10.	Joe Trickey	The Hearse Song	Anonymous