Where to begin? I think by synonym word connection, I’m ironically going to start at the end with ‘Inception”.

We went to see this at the cinema yesterday and I have to say it is the most fantastic film I’ve seen in ages. Given the usual dregs on offer for adults at the cinema over the summer, I’m guessing this is probably as well. I’m not even going to attempt to sum up what the films about or say why it’s so brilliant, it just is. Suffice it to say that I’m still stunned 24 hours later.

Equally stunning, in a different way, are the winning poetry collections from the new writer’s annual contest (www.thenewwriter.com). (The winner Maitreyabandhu also won this year’s Ledbury Poetry Contest  and it’s easy to see why). I have to say the cover to the new writer latest issue (July/August) containing these winning poems is also eye-catchingly stunning.

This week I’ve been dipping into a variety of poetry collections, including Pascale Petit’s ‘What the Water Gave Me’ (Poems after Mexican artist Frida Kahlo) and ‘The Zoo Father’. I’ve found them both moving and full of the stunning guide of poetry that makes my stomach gasp!

Visual art too has been a general theme of the week, as I put up my own combined poetry/painting/photography exhibition in St Andrew’s Square shopping centre in Droitwich on Monday. My display, also featuring some of the illustrators’ artwork from my poetry collection Into the Yell, is part of a local scheme to place art into the windows of empty town centre shops and will be up until next Monday. Hurrah!

Me (left) with Into the Yell artist Sam Hutchcocks (right)

Of course, I’m not looking forward to having to take the display down again, not least because I will need to find space for all the canvases. Yes, they will probably end up taking over the supposedly spare room! Still, I am looking forward to both our poetry group’s stanza meeting next week and Poetry Bites in Birmingham on Tuesday. It should be a great night, not only taking part in the open mic but also listening to the particularly good line-up of guest poets – Mike Barlow and Jane Routh. Stunning!