A local competition has been launched for new writing as part of this year's Coleford Festival of Words. Celebrating its 6th year the theme for this year's festival is reading and will feature appearances from some very well known writers and poets, as well films, talks, and performances. The competition is open to all and includes a youth category - which we here at Reading the Forest are very pleased to be supporting! The theme is "I'm reading..." and pieces can be anything up to 1,000 words long, poetry or prose. A selection of entries as well as the winners will also be published in an anthology. Details of the competition and how to enter...

Stewart Carswell is an emerging talent in the world of poetry. His poems follow in the footsteps of Leonard Clark, F.W. Harvey and other past and present poets whose work reflect the landscape of the Forest of Dean. He has a deep appreciation of trees, the rivers and Forest spaces. The most powerful dimension of his work lies in how these settings are the back drop to the emotional experience of identity and 'love, loss and loyalty'.

Flowers on the Plump
Momentum keeps us travelling
towards each other
but another cut bunch of flowers
warns us to ease off, reduce speed now.
When I arrive with a rose,
will you be waiting or waning?
If I don't arrive,
didn't you see the signs?
At the garage at Brierley,
someone will stop to buy flowers

We look forward to Stewart reading his poems in the Forest before too long.