The Wider Conversation
Good to be part of a deepening conversation – international, between poets, and between the human and an undervalued part of the wider community of life on Earth, through the excellent Plant-Human Quarterly.
On being (in) the age we are
An under-appreciated part of the creative process – well-judged matching of guests in a poetry reading... My thanks to the perceptive hosts of the long-running Poetry Upstairs in Abergavenny for seeing that John Barnie and I, or rather our poems, would naturally be in conversation about the edgy balance of our species with the planet's life around us, and (because we're two men of a certain age, and poetic realists) our own mortality. 
The play of opposites at Charney Manor, June 2026
Very pleased to be part of a developing programme in the Quaker-flavoured and creative calm space of Charney Manor, in the heart of rural Oxfordshire.
My father’s stamp collection, home at last
For sixty years in exile, my father Juhan (John) Karl Gross collected the stamps of the first period of Estonin independence, coming out of the 1914-18 War, then submerged in that of 1949-45. He collected every trace, down to thepoostmarks of individual villages and mail trains, and annotated the pages in his minute handwriting. What to do with a thing of that value – I don't mean market value – after his death?
Fourteen years on, this was the answer. With the friendly, dedicated help of the Estonian Embassy in London, the albums made their way to the gentle and exact curating hands of the Eesti Rahva Muuseum in Tartu. Home at last. My thanks to everyone involved. And the poem that accompanied them can be read HERE.
Conversations with Silence, 6 November, 2025
Thursday 6th November, 5.30-7pm
Quaker Centre, Euston Road, London
Across 40 years of writing life, Philip Gross’ poems have been listening to many kinds of silence – never more so than in his latest book, The Shores of Vaikus, which inhabits the resonant forests and islands of Estonia.
Hear Philip read and talk about this ongoing exploration, looking back and looking forward, in conversation with Joe Jones, editor of The Friend, with space for your own questions and discussion at the end.
Free admission
A Clearing in Cardiff, 12 November, 2025
Space to listen to poetry, music, and silence.
An evening of stillness, sound, and shared presence. Poetry: Philip Gross, Taz Rahman, Luca Paci. Music: Uli Doenitz, Chris Glynn, Rebecca Warner.
Together we create a clearing — a space where words and music meet, and silence becomes part of the listening. Come to pause, reflect, and experience art in its quietest form.
Wednesday, 12 November, 7-45-9.45pm Doors open 7pm.
Cornerstone, Charles Street, Cardiff CF10 2GA Admission £8
A Hadron Press event www.selfhelpisland.com/hadron-press
Eventbrite link here
Hearing the words and the silences: Exeter, March 7th, 2025
There”s always a deeper, more spacious feeling to a reading in a Quaker meeting house – something about a culture attuned to listening to silences as alertly as to the surrounding words.
Under the Red Guitar, El Rincon, Bristol. 19th Feb. 2025
My first visit to this thriving Bristol venue conjured out of words and music in the tapas-scented air by Bob Walton and friends...
The Shores of Vaikus, at the Estonian Embassy, London
For a taste of Estonian land-and-sea-scapes, and an Estonian sense of an inwardness, quiet and alert, as redress for the damage of a fractious world...
Embassy of Estonia, 44 Queen's Gate Terrace London SW7 5PJ
Thu, 23 Jan 2025 18:00 - 20:00 GMT Click here for an invitation.
Philip Gross reading and in conversation with Estonian writer Kai Aareleid.
Marie Howe, Philip Gross, David Constantine: Bloodaxe online launch event
Look out for the play of contrasts and quite unplanned correspondences in the weaving of three so-different voices, in poems and in conversation, still available to watch and hear on: https://youtube.com/live/lEW5RAH5R-g