Diane Melby
Salon for Creative Expression
Featured Salistas
Poetry to Music – A Creative Collaboration
Warwick Jones was the guitar playing “North” in acoustic blues/folk duo NorthnSouth (with harmonica player Tony Rowlett). He later played in the Liz Simcock Trio (with singer songwriter Liz and bassist Ian Newman), appearing on her albums Vanishing Girl & Beachcomber. Both groups performed throughout south east England, playing often at the Cambridge and Ely Folk Festivals. Warwick composed and produced his solo CD Just Around the Corner in 2020.
Hiram Larew’s poetry has appeared in The Iowa Review, Contemporary American voices, Poetry Scotland, Poetry South and elsewhere. His most recent collection, This Much Very, was published in 2025 by Alien Buddha. As founder of Poetry X Hunger, he’s bringing a world of poets to the anti-hunger cause.
What happens when a songwriter and a poet sit down to co-create? Well, if you ask UK songwriter musician, Warwick Jones and US poet, Hiram Larew, they’ll say that what happens is magic. While they’ve never met in person, they’re both members of the UK’s Home Stage’s online Poetry to Music gang. In a recent exchange, Warwick offered music for which Hiram then wrote the lyrics/poem. The result is this 3-minute audio recording of Just Imagine. See if you agree that it’s magic.
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Just Imagine M3 (Hiram Larew & Warwick Jones) by Hiram Larew
Home Stage -- Home Stage
Poetry to Music -- support@home-stage.co.uk
Warwick Jones
Hiram Larew
Salista News
Welcome to Bob Larson from VA’s Shenandoah Valley. Bob is a jazz pianist who has recorded and performed with some of the finest musicians in the mid-Atlantic region and has led student groups on performance tours in China, Japan, Spain, France and Iceland. You can learn more about Bob and his music @ www.boblarsonmusic.com
Diane Melby shares the link to her poem, “A Funny Kind of Grief” published in the latest issue of Susurrus. In this poem, she remembers two special mentors that took her life to places never anticipated.
Congratulations to Irina Flowers on the publication of her first novel! Born and raised in Russia, Irina moved to the U.S. in 1999 and currently resides on the East Coast with her husband and three black cats. You can find her novel, “The Cure” published under her pen name, Eva Boris at https://a.co/d/04RVGzW and https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242469792-the-cure
Jacob Jablonski joins the Salon from Winchester, VA. Not only is Jacob a new father, he serves as the Northwest Regional Vice President for the Poetry Society of Virginia and is known locally as the Poet of the Walking Mall. You can view Jacob’s work at http://www.walkingmallpoet.com/
Applause for Hiram Larew who received a Pushcart nomination for his poem, “Over and Over.” Nominated by the editors of Susurrus, read his poem here: https://www.susurrusthemagazine.com/over-and-over
Cheers to Warwick Jones, our first Salista from the U.K. Hailing from Norfolk, Warwick was introduced to the Salon by long-term Salista, Hiram Larew. Read more about these remarkable men in the feature above.