You can hear my guest readings from ‘Words With Wings’ on radio show ‘The Poetry Place‘ today, being broadcast at 3pm BST (Sunday 27 March) on West Wilts Radio (UK).

I talk about the poems and my life here in the Australian bush, interspersed with readings accompanied by my own piano music from the ‘Words With Wings’ digital album.

The show also features John Gallas, originally from New Zealand but now living in Leicestershire.  John has 23 collections, published mostly by Carcanet, with books including The Extasie, The Song Atlas, Fresh Air & the Story of Molecule, 52 Euros and The Little Sublime Comedy, and also titles from Indigo Dreams.

If you miss the original broadcast you can listen again afterwards on https://westwiltsradio.com/shows/the-poetry-place/.

Thank you so much to everyone who came to Berkelouw Books last night. I sang acoustic songs accompanied by my husband Christian on double bass, and read poems from my books ‘Words With Wings’ and ‘Meditation Mind’. I also read a story from my first book ‘Start Over Again’. I enjoyed the night so much. A big thank you to Kylie, the bookshop manager, for making it all possible. The gig sold out 5 weeks in advance so we will be booking a date at Berkelouw to do another poetry and song event there at some point later this year.

It’s been raining, day after day, with storms bringing a deluge of water.   We are now completely flooded in. The bitumen road out is a river. The dirt road is passable just but leads to the main road which is flooded in both directions. The forecast is more rain and storms every day. We’ve got pasta and rice and tinned tomatoes so we won’t starve.

On the other side of the world, normal life has stopped as the Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine. I cannot begin to imagine how frightened the people there must be, wondering what will happen next. Wondering if anyone is coming to save them. I don’t usually read the news but Christian has been telling me what’s going on. And there’s nothing I can do. My preoccupations, my concerns, now seem so utterly trivial.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the Ukrainian refugees and the people left behind. Maybe there really are only six degrees of separation between us all. Maybe if I try and live my life as gently as possible, be as kind as I can to the people I meet, it does make some tiny difference to this crazy world we live in.

xx

At the start of last year, my old friend Franz Novotny asked if I could contribute some content to an online Buddhist radio station he was setting up.  I decided to make a series of half-hour programmes to tell some of the stories behind the songs on my five studio albums.

Many months later, after managing to overcome all the technical hurdles and wade through all the red tape, Diamond Sky Radio was up and running and on Christmas Day, the first of my five programmes, called ‘Songs and Stories’, was broadcast.

You can hear me talking about how I started writing songs, my stagefright, being cured of fibromyalgia, why I became a Buddhist, what happened the first time I was sectioned, how I write songs, falling in love in the Australian bush, living in a recycled shack, becoming a cheesemaker, how I met Don McLean, the story behind the making of ‘Believer’, writing ‘Woke Up’ for Greenpeace, why I published ‘Start Over Again’, my lifelong passion for Bach and Bob Marley, the miscarriage that inspired ‘Banks of the Acheron’, overcoming writer’s block, and surviving life on the bipolar rollercoaster all these years.

And in between the talking, I play the tracks I’ve chosen from each album.

Here is a link to all the programmes so you can listen again if you missed them.  I hope you enjoy them.

https://emilymaguire.com/songs-and-stories/

xx

I could not let this day go by without expressing my gratitude for the life of Thich Nhat Hanh and the incredible blessing that he was for so many people.

I am really looking forward to singing my songs and reading poems from my new book ‘Words With Wings’ at the wonderful Berkelouw bookshop in Eumundi on Friday 18 March.

When my last poetry book ‘Meditation Mind’ came out in 2018, my husband Christian and I toured bookshops and Buddhist centres in the UK, performing a mix of songs and poetry readings. It worked so well and we loved doing it so I’m delighted that Berkelouw Books in Eumundi have agreed to host an evening to celebrate the publication of ‘Words With Wings’.

This will be an intimate gig with places limited due to the space so please book soon if you would like to be there.  There will be a short Q&A at the end.  Tickets are $20/$15 concessions.  All tickets will be refunded in the event of a cancellation due to Covid.  Please click here if you would like more information about the event.

Book tickets