An enthusiastic poetry appreciation group has been running at Stonington for more than seven years. Poetry Pilgrims was introduced by Anthony Ash, and in the early days Jennifer Strauss, a poet, helped us to become established. We had some time with no particular leader but are now privileged to have had the continuing leadership of Anne McQueen-Thomson for more than four years.

In the past we studied various themes or topics such as war poetry. More recently we have run through specific poets or eras and are currently exploring recent Australian poetry.

The group generally are interested in the meaning of the poems but this is sometimes interspersed with other discussion, for example about the lives of the poets, or the construction of the poetry.  The poetry agenda is set in response to the interests of the members.

There is no attempt to write poetry or detail the methodology of poetry. While homework is not expected, we email copies of the poems to be discussed several days prior to the actual session. Through the Covid lockdowns the ‘Pilgrims’ met by Zoom, but since then most prefer to meet in person. However members unable to attend in person can participate by Zoom (hybrid).