Welcome back to The Book Bag. I hope you’ve had a poetic week. I’ve had a great week. On Sunday just after sharing my thoughts on Merril D. Smith’s book, I saw two deer running just in front of my house, a doe and an infant. Then my wife and I did a spot of shopping and enjoyed a delicious pub lunch. On Monday we visited The Laing Art Gallery which currently has an exhibition on Miniature Landscapes including work from the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Excellent. We also celebrated my Mother-In- Law’s birthday & retirement with a couple of meals and a delicious cake.

Welcome back to The Book Bag. I hope you’ve had a poetic week. Well, this has been a week. On Sunday, I attended the Black Bough open mic and read a couple of pieces. I then had a half day leave from work on Monday where we took Brody to the vets for a checkup and boosters. He’s healthy but he really doesn’t like the vets. Yesterday, the excellent Full House Literary launched their new issue, which contains one of my poems. I’m beyond happy to share pages with incredible writers.

November, here we are. The fiery palate outside makes me think this year is burning through time. Where did October go? With a new month, comes a new Poetic Voice and I am beyond thrilled to be able to announce and welcome to The Book Bag, Rebecca Goss, a poet I have long regarded as exceptional, especially for her poetry of place. It was excellent to hear Rebecca receive much deserved mainstream recognition from Frank Skinner on his podcast a couple of months ago, listen here.