ROBBIE BURNS COMES TO TOWN

One could ask if he ever left such has been his impact on his native Scotland and in every clachan, kirktown, baile and glen scattered the world over.
We are in for a treat today, Sunday 13 March, 2022,

AISLA MARAMA & FRIENDS present
Robbie Burns in poem and song, music and dance

There will be an open mic too so break out a Burns poem or song , dust off the fiddle, limber up your limbs and get ready for Robbie Burns as found in Golden Bay!

Today, Sunday 13  March, 2022, 5.00 pm. MAD Cafe, Collingwood.  All welcome, one and all. Koha entry.

LITTLE BITS

GOT A GIG, EVENT, NEW BOOK or RECORDING COMING UP ??

Got events or gigs coming up that you’d like to let CRUMB readers know about, please email the details, jpeg pics and jpeg posters to: mark@drycrust.com

And if you have a new book of  poems, stories coming out, or a new recording of songs, let me know and I can let our small but dedicated readership in on the action.

Nice Time @ The Barn #3
Sunday 25 September, 3.33 pm
The Barn 143  Rocklands Road. Koha.

Details opposite page

A WINTER’S BIRTHDAY

THE THURSDAY POEM

Every Thursday I post a video poem on Facebook. It’s something I have been doing for four and a half years now. Go to www.facebook.com/markraffills if you want to have a listen.

A WINTER’S BIRTHDAY

We sit and we reminisce in those quiet moments afforded us in the loss and in the living that must always drift, arm in arm, across the landscape of our everyday. A poem for Elaine on her birthday in a video made by Dr Jeff Obadiah Simmonds. Words below.

A winter’s birthday
A wee dram or two of whisky
to warm the heart
on a cold winters evening,

her birthday eve  and we sat
in gathered company,
a wooden deck, an old couch,

the smell of a distant spring
wafting in from the freshly
mown lawn, waiting tomorrow

for that dear friend arriving,
constant companion, childhood
cohort from the wild west.

And while we waited, we shared
memories of those who shall
always be with us in conversation,

and we remembered them
as we raised our glasses
to toast the days of wonder

gifted us here, shared
in the quiet of a winter’s evening,
in the passing of another year.

Mark Raffills

Watch the video here:

You will also find me:

Mark Raffills website  |  YouTube channel  |  Daily Twitter poems/thoughts

An Undivided Community

FREE UP THE MICROPHONE – on the move

It’s been quiet on the Village Green these last few weeks so thought we would try a relocation for a while.  SOMA Cafe in Takaka have kindly welcomed us to their place for a lunch time session following on from Standing with Signs.  We plan to be set up at Soma from 12.45 pm each Friday. We hope you can come and join us and take part in the open mic sessions with songs, provocations and poems.

The location changes but the message remains almost the same. The big thing is still that masks must be worn in retail outlets. It’s time to stop this foolishness and acknowledge that mask wearing is largely ineffective when it comes to stopping the spread of a virus. And they are the single biggest instrument of division still plaguing our community. They must go.

And although  the ‘mandates’ have gone – or at least put into the back pocket for now –  we want to see it mandated that people who lost their jobs must be offered them back with reinstatement of lost wages.

The vax passports have gone into the back pocket too which means all events can run freely for now and we must make certain it stays this way for evermore.

So you can see, the work is not done yet. And there is nothing like a poem or a song or a few well-chosen words to Free Up the Microphone and strengthen the heart in its bold stand. Planning to be at Soma Cafe, Takaka,  every Friday from 12.45 pm, holding the space for an undivided community.

Free Up The Microphone
Soma Cafe, Takaka
Fridays, 12.45 pm