Poetry Breakfast, March 2025

Saturday Books Poetry Breakfast
15th March 2025

Lee Benson

Benson’s early years as a rock musician told: he knew how to take hold of an occasion. All the disciplines of the stage were there, not least the preparation. The result was practised showmanship, right from the dry introductory humour (‘I see the Castle’s still here.’) to the gravity of certain of the poems he chose to read.

The Poetry Breakfast audience, thirty-one in number, were stilled to pin-drop silence by the truths, of modern life and its technical challenges, its dilemmas (reclusiveness versus engagement, the freedom you must grant to your children). This poet though has a way of making everyone feel cheerful while encountering the most serious of subjects.

Well-primed by the Court House coffee and a series of witty open-mic offerings, we laughed along with Lee.