Phil Welton

Poetry

Our Poetry: The Music of Being Human

With Phil Welton

OUR POETRY promotes and celebrates the infinite variety of poetic voices living in and around Deal. Of course, the show has global ambitions - see below. I introduce about a dozen poets per show who discuss and read their own poems. In each show I meet a particular artist who reads their own work and a chosen poem by another author. I ask them about their lives and how and […]

Someone suggested a Radio Show on Poetry and Phil has picked up the ball and run with it. The result is ‘OUR POETRY: The Music of Being Human’.

Phil has sung and played in bands before and after his career. Phil is a recovering Social Worker. He has lived in Deal since 2007. Phil had spent many years writing songs and at times been out there playing and singing them. Having written poetry when young, Phil recently re-discovered it and initially smuggled his way into The Deal Poets Society on the strength of his song lyrics. However, the lockdown put paid to musical performing and Phil started writing actual poems. He found he loved it and became drawn to the wide variety of poetic voices out there.

He then discovered that a great many poets are active in and around Deal. The Deal Poets Society started Poetry Open Mics at The Lighthouse and have been blown away by the number of people lining up to read their own work. The quality and human interest of the poems has also been a brilliant surprise.

‘The Music of Being Human’ is an expression used by recent poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy to explain what poetry is and the uniqueness of each poetic voice. Phil has shamelessly borrowed it to give an indication of what this show is about and what it aims to do. In 2022, four of the Deal Poets Society spent a day at a primary school reading poems and discussing poetry with the children. Every child wrote their own poem at the end of the session. Since then, school staff have been pleased to see a much greater active interest in reading and writing poetry amongst the children. All they needed was to be given the opportunity and awakened to the possibility. Poetry is one of the oldest human activities. This has been the inspiration that keeps Phil running with that ball!

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