Video of Poems to Enjoy

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Part 6

Poems to Enjoy

Atom Cheung

We were delighted to have Dr. Verner Bickley as guest for our first gathering in 2014.  He recently published the book set, Poems to Enjoy, with the intention of not only teaching poetry to students, but also to prepare them for performing these poems at the Hong Kong Speech Festival.  Dr. Bickley has been an adjudicator at the Festival since 1987 and shared with us his extensive experience at the event.  His sharing gave us insight on how young people in local schools can benefit from reading English poems, not only in terms of acquiring a new language, but the process of participating in speech festivals and contests boosts one’s confidence which serves the individual’s development on many levels.  Dr. Bickley stressed that parents and teachers should be supportive to a student participating in such an event.  Rather than a competition, the Festival is more of a celebration of language arts and the spoken word.  This point is emphasized in the title of the book set, Poems to Enjoy.  Poetry, indeed, is to be enjoyed, and Dr. Bickley has facilitated this process by handpicking a set of poems that cater to the process of a young person’s linguistic and intellectual development.  

(photos by Paul Wan)

Kubrick Poetry • January • Poems to Enjoy

時間 Time：2014/1/26 (Sunday) 4:00pm-5:00pm

地點 Venue：油麻地 Kubrick電影中心一樓講廳

主持 Moderators: Atom Cheung

詩人 Poetry anthologiser：Verner Bickley

VERNER BICKLEY, MBE, PhD, is a well-known "voice", educationist, and adjudicator, who has held director-level positions in Universities and Government Departments. He is Chairman of the English-Speaking Union (HK) and Co-Founder of the International Proverse Prize for unpublished writing. He travels frequently to judge public-speaking competitions and regularly adjudicates verse and prose speaking and reading, as well as drama and choral speaking.

His Poems to Enjoy is a five-book series of graded poetry anthologies for readers of all ages. Books 1-3 are especially dedicated to children. Audio recordings of all the poems in each book, read by Verner and his wife Gillian are provided in an accompanying CD. The recordings are delightful to listen to. Also, they assist with pronunciation and help those preparing for solo verse speaking and reading, duo and group-work and choral-speaking in speech festivals.

Verner will explain the work of an anthologiser and introduce the poems. He will also share his experience as an adjudicator and educator.