MORLEY LITERATURE FESTIVAL - A CELEBRATION OF MILLS & BOON

I attended this event at Bertie's Diner last night, which was presented in partnership with 'THE CULTURE VULTURE your inside guide to this month's juiciest morsels of culture.'  The evening was an affectionate tribute to M&B and a book launch of 'Broken Shackles' by Adele Morley - a collaborative romance novel which had a team of seven writers including Dr Jayne Rodgers, Jenny Harris and Emma Beardmore.  The book is available for the next six months as a free download from www.morleyliteraturefestival.co.uk and it went live at midnight last night.  The evening featured readings from various M&B books down the years, including a recent one by Fiona Harper entitled 'Swept off my Stillettos.'  The various stories were read out in a pastiche-style by Brian Wakeling and Jess Hay and the evening also featured performance poetry by Katie Sandham and an excellent romance homage to Star Wars by Dr Jayne Rodgers.  Romance-inspired cocktails were available to taste during the evening and musical entertainment was provided by the hilarious Frank Lee Marvellous.  A very amusing evening indeed.

So in a pastiche mood, I offer up my poem 'O Cabbage' for your delectation:

O CABBAGE

O cabbage you are to me
Like the leaves upon that tree
Green and new, shiny with life
Glinting like sun, upon a knife

As time creeps on you, you open so pure
The healthiest of tasty lure
Ripe and ready to be picked
Is it not so: am I tricked?

I wander now through fields of all
Cabbages everywhere, but to my gall
Yours is the sweetest and the true
All my love I should give to you

I could but gather in my arms
More cabbages with ample charms
Alas, I am the butterfly
Caught in a net, but know not why?

When the sun was warm upon your face
You gave yourself to my embrace
Now nights' long tendrils draw in close
You cool to me like day old toast

Your leaves will wither, brown and die
Your vivacious light will leave the sky
And then when now you wish to reap
All the goodness that you keep

Where am I?  And did I wait?
Patiently at Heavens gate
Now that's the question making you pale
By closing to me, so did you fail?

To claim your place within the pan
Warmed forever by your man
For now the harder will you toil
To leave the unforgiving soil