FURLOUGHED reporter, Gary Bills-Geddes, has spent his free time during the pandemic putting together his third poetry collection.

Laws for Honey, has just come out with Liverpool-based publisher, the Erbacce Press.

One poem from the collection has been highly commended in the Segora International Poetry Competition, which was judged by the renowned poet, Martyn Crucefix.

Gary, who writes for the Worcester News and Ledbury Reporter, said: “Many of the poems in the collection were written a while ago, and others are new; but there is a strong local theme for several of them.

“For example, one poem celebrates the Malvina Fountain at Malvern, and another recalls a time when we were living at Wellington Heath, near Ledbury, and a hot air balloon floated overhead – very low indeed!”

The poems in Laws for Honey will not only find an English-speaking audience, because a large number of them are currently being translated by an Erasmus scholar of Bucharest University, as part of her Ph.D. studies.

Gary said: “The Bucharest University link came about 12 years back; the Poetry Pf site, of which I am a member, formed links with both Munich and Bucharest Universities.

“As a result I was invited to Munich to give a reading, which I did, in 2010; and meanwhile Bucharest University produced a book of translated modern English poems - with me at the front (and it was not alphabetical!).

“It also managed to broadcast readings and translations of my poetry on Romanian national radio. I didn’t give the readings, though, in that case.

“The Professor of English at Bucharest has pushed the idea that a new group of English language poets has formed, called, The Desperadoes: and yes, I am apparently a member of that group! I think she sees us as outsiders and renegades, in both concept and techniques.”

The Erbacce Press has created a web page with more information about Gary’s book, and signed copies are currently available, to help launch it.

The web page can be found at: http://erbacce-press.webeden.co.uk/gary-bills/4594991848

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