MEMBERS of a poetry group in Malvern are sharing their work with Gazette readers.

Poems by members of Spoken Word, a group that meets every Thursday at 7.30pm at Abbey Road Coffee to perform their work, are being published in the Gazette to promote the talent in Malvern and encourage more people to take up the artform.

Francis Charters, a member of the group, said: "Creative writing in Malvern has come to Abbey Road for many decades. Thousands of creatively written letters have come to the post office with heartfelt replies arriving at the sorting office next door.

"In more recent years the performance of creative writing has followed the same geography. Next door to the sorting office, down the newly renovated steps to the Priory, Abbey Road Coffee hosts a spoken word poetry evening every Thursday night at 7.30pm.

"Abbey Road Coffee Spoken Word is a disparate group of local poets, raconteurs, storytellers and wordsmiths. Some are fearless, some fearful, yet they all have that creative gene which they express with their words."

For more information on the group, email arcspokenword@yahoo.co.uk

Freezing Point by Jeremy Harwood

At freezing point the night hands over to the day

And the sun peers through a haze

Hunting the stars scattered in the frosted grass.

Focus the scope of your eyes on the patch of adonis blue,

Watch it widen as each wing flap pushes back the curtains further

Until the lens on the day, new polished, shows every detail,

And each frame of the stop motion world is ready to be explored.

Walk the waves of the fields where mud, hard frozen, is friendly to the boot,

By the lanes where each ivy leaf is framed

And the rainbow coalesces in the white that brings to life

the achromatic winter hedges.

Breathe the sharp air and purge your lungs

As time expands to match the widening panorama.

Head to where the cedars punctuate the horizon

Past where the ducks pad the lake top, bewildered.

This is a world of inversion where it’s white in the shadows

And the cold brings warmth to the adventure seeker.

So wander free if you want your world refreshed.

For a long day’s moment drown out

The susurration of pressing time.

Go feel the melody in a footstep’s crunch,

A kestrel’s cry.

Beyond the threshold

Dreams are glinting at each turn.

This day is for you.