John Mole (born 1941) is an English poet for adults and children, born in

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

.Poetry Archive (GB
Retrieved 28 November 2017.
/ref> Some of his poems present political issues to young people. He is also a jazz clarinetist.

Poetry

Mole has won several prizes for his poetry, including an

Eric Gregory Award The Eric Gregory Award is a literary award given annually by the Society of Authors for a collection by British poets under the age of 30. The award was founded in 1960 by Dr. Eric Gregory to support and encourage young poets. In 2021, the seven ...

, the

Cholmondeley Award The Cholmondeley Awards () are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has bee ...

, and the Signal Award for children's poetry. He is a writer in residence at

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

and a poet in residence to the Poets Society in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

. He is also a poet in residence for the

Poet in the City Poet in the City brings poetry to life beyond books, digging out classic and contemporary gems and immersing audiences in the worlds of poets through events, commissions and participation. Poet in the City is a prominent London-based arts org ...

charity scheme. Mole's many poems for children include "Variations on an Old Rhyme" and "The Balancing Man". Both of these discuss political issues in a way that points out their relevance to young people. ''Treatment'' is a string of poems that amounts to a personal response to a course of

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

he underwent. A reading of his poetry for the Poetry Archive appeared on CD. It was made on 30 April 2003 at the Audio Workshop, London, and produced by Richard Carrington. His three published volumes of verse have been ''The Love Horse'' (Eric Morten, 1973), ''A Partial Light'' (Dent, 1975) and ''On a Ship'' (Secker & Warburg, 1979).

Libretto

Mole wrote the

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

for '' Alban'', a community opera composed by Tom Wiggall and performed in May 2009 in

St Albans Cathedral St Albans Cathedral, officially the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban but often referred to locally as "the Abbey", is a Church of England cathedral in St Albans, England. Much of its architecture dates from Normans, Norman times. It cease ...

. It was performed again in

Holborn Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. The area has its roots ...

, London, in the autumn of 2010.University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
/ref>

References

20th-century English poets 1941 births Living people Writers from London English male poets Children's poets 20th-century English male writers 21st-century English poets 21st-century English male writers {{UK-poet-stub