Poetry from Ruddington

Ruddington, A creative community graphic

The site where Ruddington's residents reveal their poetic talents and share them with the world. There are currently half a dozen adult poets who regularly provide poems to the site, together with contributions from various secondary schools attended by Ruddington children. The poems cover a wonderful variety of styles, themes and poetic techniques. Pat Dring is Ruddington's most prolific poet, with a publication under her belt and a recent move from writing verse inspired by her agoraphobia and addiction into writing humorous poems. Another author of humorous poems is Patrick Winstnaley, who writes funny poetry for adults and children. Look out for the work of Michelle Hubbard, a writer with attitude and a performance poet to boot and Simon Auchterlonie, whose often inpenetrable poems are suffused with religious feeling.

The site is always on the lookout for new contributors, so if you write poems, or know someone else who does, please get in touch. It's a friedly, non-judmental arena in which to try out new work, widen your audience or simply dip your toe in the water of poetic ocean.

Site Updates

16.01.05
A fresh collection of poems from Pat Dring, Peter Woodhead and a new voice, Fred Grumpus.

15.09.04
Online shopping section added - why not shop online and help support the work of Ruddington IT Association and its stable of Ruddington related websites

26.06.04
The launch of Poetry Mad Kids, a collection of funny poems for children by Patrick Winstanley.

14.05.04
Launch of the Spring poetry collection, featuring the first airing of poems by Peter Woodhead and the return of some familiar favourites.

11.04.04
Patrick Winstanley launches Peculiar Poetry, a reprise of his funny poems for adults.

07.02.04
The individual poet's pages have been redesigned to improve navigation and new funny poetry by Patrick Winstanley and Pat Dring has been added.

01.12.03
Unveiling of the Winter poetry collection, which includes further poems from 'all the usual suspects'. The selection is not specifically themed for Christmas, but features rather more upbeat poems than is sometimes the case and the odd poem on seasonally inspired subjects - diets, polar bears and ice skating.

09.10.03
Autumn poetry collection launched to coincide with National Poetry Day - Pat Dring treats us to a new poem about Weightwatchers and a further selection from Pat's Poems, Patrick Winstanley has written a new series of historical-biographical poems, some as Clerihews and some 'inverted Clerihews', and there are new poems from regular contributors Simon Auchterlonie, Barbara Buttery and Michelle Hubbard.

Background

The inspiration for the site came from a chance encounter on Church Street with Simon Auchterlonie, a volunteer at the Honeycomb Christian Charity Shop. He screeched up beside me in his electric wheelchair and handed me a folder, asking whether I'd like to read some of his recent poems. I read them there and then and was convinced that they deserved to reach wider a audience.

Subsequently, I met Pat Dring when she joined the Ruddington Community Computer Centre. Pat discovered her poetic muse following a 20 year addiction to valium and a period suffering from agoraphobia. She published a collection of her work, 'Pat's Poems', in 1998, and has made a number of television appearances relating to both her poetry and agoraphobia.

I was delighted that both Pat and Simon agreed to contribute poems to the site and with that encouragement the project was launched.

Development

The site has been built by volunteers from Ruddington IT Association (RITA) and because of its dynamic nature will require considerable ongoing maintenance and further development. If you would like to become involved with running the site, either on the technical or the creative side, please get in touch with RITA - details are given on the the contact page.

The site will never as such be 'finished', but the speed with which it develops and the content will be determined by the site's contributors and users. So please provide us with feed back - things you do or don't like, suggestions and contributions will all help us develop the site in the direction you want to see it go.

The Village Website

Ruddington.org is not a village website, rather it focuses on individual residents and certain cultural aspects of community life. If you would like to discover more about Ruddington 'the place', the bottom button on the navigation bar will direct you to Ruddington.com, our sister site which has an abundance of information about the village of interest to both residents and visitors alike.