Today I joined the Creative Writing Group at the Maggie Centre in Manchester for the launch of Brambles a pamphlet of poems by my daughter Katie. For those who may not have heard of them, Maggie Centres are a resource for cancer sufferers and their families. They offer counselling, financial advice, mutual support and cake. On our first visit we walked into reception, only reception is actually a kitchen and yes there is cake. That first visit was with our daughter who has a rare and incurable cancer. She was diagnosed in 2014 and we have had our up and downs, lots of downs. But our best ups have been at Maggies.

We were there, round the kitchen table for the launch of the group’s first publication, an anthology of writing called Sharp Scratch. It was a posh do. We had cake and wine. Today, we were on Zoom for the launch of their second publication, Brambles by Katie Stanton. Coffee had to stand in for cake and wine. But Katie needed no stand in. She gave an inspired reading. Then the guests left and the group stopped reading and started writing.

Rather, we started reading as a prelude to writing. Taking Kate Clanchy’s How to Grow Your Own Poem as a guide, the group, by happy coincidence, are on the same chapter as I. The poem we were using was Edwin Morgan’s A View of Things. I have struggled with this poem on my own and hoped the group would provide the stimulus to do better. A few of the group were also dissatisfied with their efforts. Good to know I am not alone. Anyway I squeezed out a poem and shared it with the group.