Royal Reading for 'Liverpool Is'
Award winning poet and WEA tutor, Jim Bennett recently treated Prince Edward to a reading of two of his poems, when the Earl of Wessex visited the North West Disability Arts Forum (NWDAF). Jim performed "Liverpool Is" and "The sum of all our differences" to an  audience from NWDAF including visual artists, performers and writers. The Earl commented, "I have thoroughly enjoyed the visit and am amazed at the variety of arts work on offer".
The Earl's visit was ideally timed as it coincided with the run up to the the NWDAF's DaDaFest, a 10 day festival, celebrating Disability and Deaf Arts. The festival runs in the last week in November, and is now in its fourth year. Activities take place in a range of venues across Merseyside, varying from "exploring sculpture touch tours" around the Tate Liverpool, to a family oriented Pre-Christmas Poetry Party, run by Jim Bennett.
The final night of the festival was marked with the DaDaFest Awards ceremony. Jim was honoured to receive theprize for Best Individual Performer 2004. This can be added to his many other accolades, most recently, Poetry House Poetry Collection of the Year award, for his book "The Man Who Tried to Hug the Clouds"
As well as being an acclaimed poet, Jim, who lives in the Merseyside area, has been a WEA tutor for three years. He teaches a range of courses including scriptwriting, current affairs, art appreciation and creative writing, and also finds time to run www.poetrykit.org, an extensive online resource site for writers of poetry. Our thanks go to Jim and Bluechrome Publishers, for allowing the WEA to publish "Liverpool Is" so visitors to our website also have the chance enjoy the poem.
Liverpool Is
Liverpool is
town on Saturday
football and beer
Pierhead and ferries
Dale Street Church street
Sefton park and the rec
it's places and people
accents and buildings
Liverpool is
old and new
the Tate and the Walkers
the Spinners and the La's
Christians and McGough
The Liverpool Scene
and the Dead Good Poets
sarcastic and funny
using words like daggers
Liverpool is
a bevie with your mates
having a laugh
the Albert Dock and Canning Street
the Rope Walk Roads
the good old days
the bad old days
poverty and tears
making do
Liverpool is
cathedrals and religion
mosques and temples
chapels and churches
the red, and the blue
the orange and the green
Goodison and Anfield
universities and shopping
students and the homeless
side by side
shoulder to shoulder
with the Pope
in Hope Street
Liverpool is
nann bread and pita bread
chips and Chinese
pizza and bagels
an Indian and McDonalds
it's every colour and tradition
it's white and black
brown and yellow
England and Ireland
Wales and Scotland
Pakistan and Bangladesh
India and China
the West Indies and Hong Kong
Somalia and Cameroon
it's every place
its a kaleidoscope
of mixed living
loving colour
Liverpool is
Text and photograph © Jim Bennett 2001
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