Celebrating & Sharing Poems as Friends
Celebrating & Sharing
POEMS AS FRIENDS
Fiona Bennett 1964-2024
Dear friends
We are so sorry to have to share with you the most heartbreaking news.
Our beloved and extraordinary friend and founder of The Poetry Exchange, Fiona Bennett, passed away in early August.
Fiona became ill very suddenly, before receiving a diagnosis of a rare and complex form of cancer, which tragically was untreatable.
After some weeks in hospital, she was able to move to a setting of great peace and care, where she spent her final days with her family and loved ones at her side.
We are so sorry to have to share this devastating news, which we know will come as a huge shock to you all.
The reality is still sinking in for us, and we are taking some time to process and face the loss of our most beautiful friend, colleague and source of so much light. We hope you too can go gently in absorbing this news.
It is hard to begin to express Fiona's immeasurable gifts to the world and to us all. She brought so much love, life and poetry to everyone she met, and touched so many people's lives in such a profound way. We will feel her with us always, and will continue to find ways to lift up and honour her extraordinary life and legacy in the years ahead.
With deep love, gratitude and sorrow,
The Poetry Exchange xx
August 2024
96. A Kite for Aibhín by Seamus Heaney - A Friend to Fiona
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Dear friends
We are mourning and missing our beloved Fiona, whilst also celebrating her extraordinary life and work, and everything she brought to all our lives. We continue to feel her with us in everything we do.
This month, we pay tribute to Fiona by re-relasing the conversation in which Fiona visits The Poetry Exchange for herself, talking about the poem that has been a friend to her: 'A Kite for Aibhín' by Seamus Heaney.
The conversation was originally recorded in France in 2017, and you can also find it as episode 23 of the podcast.
We are incredibly grateful for all the amazing messages of support, gratitude, loss and condolence we have received from so many of you around the world. Your words speak volumes about Fiona and the way she touched and changed your lives, whether you knew her in person or simply through listening to her voice each month. Michael reads a small selection of some of these messages at the beginning of the episode.
Please do continue to write to us with thoughts, feelings and memories of Fiona at hello@thepoetryexchange.co.uk.
Fiona's own collection of poetry - On the Brink of Touch - will be published later this month by Live Canon, and we will let you know more about that very soon. You will hear Fiona's reading of her poem 'Imprint' at the end of this episode.
Thank you so much for all your support, love and friendship,
Michael, John and The Poetry Exchange xx
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A Kite for Aibhín
by Seamus Heaney
After "L'Aquilone" by Giovanni Pascoli (1855-1912)
Air from another life and time and place,
Pale blue heavenly air is supporting
A white wing beating high against the breeze,
And yes, it is a kite! As when one afternoon
All of us there trooped out
Among the briar hedges and stripped thorn,
I take my stand again, halt opposite
Anahorish Hill to scan the blue,
Back in that field to launch our long-tailed comet.
And now it hovers, tugs, veers, dives askew,
Lifts itself, goes with the wind until
It rises to loud cheers from us below.
Rises, and my hand is like a spindle
Unspooling, the kite a thin-stemmed flower
Climbing and carrying, carrying farther, higher
The longing in the breast and planted feet
And gazing face and heart of the kite flier
Until string breaks and—separate, elate—
The kite takes off, itself alone, a windfall.
Excerpted from Human Chain by Seamus Heaney. Published in September 2010 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Copyright © 2010 by Seamus Heaney. All rights reserved.
Welcome to The Poetry Exchange
We explore the idea of poems as friends.
We talk to people from all walks of life about the poem that has been a friend to them, celebrating the ways the poem speaks to them personally and the part it has played in their life.
We share these extraordinary stories of connection with listeners around the world through The Poetry Exchange podcast, as well as through live events and activities - opening a new door into poetry for the widest possible audience.
Our first anthology was published by Quercus Editions in May 2024. Poems As Friends: The Poetry Exchange 10th Anniversary Anthology brings together a selection of poems chosen by readers that know them as friends, presented alongside their personal stories of connection.
We invite you to join our community of poetry lovers, listeners, readers and writers...and enjoy a life filled with poems as friends.
Poems as Friends - The Poetry Exchange
10th Anniversary Anthology
Released on 9th May 2024
In this celebratory book, Fiona Bennett and Michael Shaeffer draw on ten years of archival material to bring together a collection of poems chosen by readers that know them as friends, presented alongside their personal stories of connection.
You can now find or order your copy of Poems as Friends at bookshops around the UK and online.
"Compiling this anthology has been the most enriching, heart-warming creative project. We are thrilled to be bringing this book into the world with Quercus Editions and to be sharing poems as friends with readers far and wide."
Fiona Bennett and Michael Shaeffer
The Poetry Exchange Podcast
The Poetry Exchange podcast shares the conversations we have with people about the poem that has been a friend to them. In each episode you will hear our guest talking about their chosen poem and the part it has played in their life, as well as a unique recording of the poem that we make as a gift for them. Our podcast features conversations with people from all walks of life, as well as a range of special guests.
Official British Podcast Awards 2018,
Silver Award Winner for Most Original Podcast
94. Poems as Friends at
Norfolk & Norwich Festival
Subscribe to our podcast to receive episodes as soon as they are released on a monthly basis, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.