In Memory of Ian M Parr

I first met Ian Parr when he started coming to my Poetry Society Stanza group, Blaze. Right from the start, Ian was chatty and convivial, and keenly interested in poetry. He was also a member of Chester Poets. He had lived in Northwich for many years before I knew him, a fact which became apparent when I was asked to put together a poetry project for St Helen’s Church, Northwich. I invited Ian Parr and Kemal Houghton to be part of it, and we each led workshops at one of their open days, in a rotation, so everyone had three workshops to attend. The anthology we produced was called Stones Have Their Own Language, taken from Ian’s sequence ‘One Perpetual Place’. Eight of Ian’s poems were included, and nine of his photographs. His impact on the project was massive. All day his friendly energy crackled through the church, and at the selection meetings he was modest and helpful. It was truly a collaborative project and we finished it with a launch in the church, the winter before the Covid lockdown. Ian had moved further into Shropshire by that time.

You can see Ian there, right at the heart of the project, wearing his trademark red scarf. I asked him about it a long time ago and he explained it was in memory of a friend who had died. That is typical of Ian: he was the sort of person who valued friendships very deeply.

Ian was very knowledgeable about both poetry and folk music – two passions we shared. He would pop up in unexpected places with a smile on his face, delighted by my surprised reaction. One year he turned up at Whitby Folk Week. I’d gone to the Spa to collect my artist passes and I heard a jolly ‘Hello Angela’. I did a double take and he laughed! I bumped into him a few times and he even attended some of my workshops. I was reading in Shrewsbury, and didn’t expect him at all, but there he was, again with that cheeky smile and kind eyes, saying he had come to support me. He’d heard me read from that collection several times already and I was so touched he was coming back for more. That support was given to all the poets he knew and counted as friends. We will all have our own special memories of Ian Parr, and I invite anyone to post tributes below in the comments.

Ian had let me know of his illness and I was hopeful he would survive, having had all the treatment offered, and a loving partner to give him everything to live for. He was working on his own collection of poems and asked me if I would endorse it for him. I was very proud to do so. It was called Singing Tomorrows, and the lovely cover featured one of Ian’s own beautiful photographs. His positivity and zest for life spilled into everything he did.

This is my endorsement: ~
Parr has been honing his craft ever since I have known him, and this book is a very welcome debut. Here are poems which share the joys of nature and folk music in a sure-footed way, able to balance minute plants like ‘Birdsfoot Trefoil’ with a sequence on the planets.  Favourite people and places are celebrated. Parr can handle both formal verse and free verse, and while some of these poems are leavened with humour, in the end the reader’s impression is of moving and tender poems which nestle at the heart of this collection.

Angela Topping

Let this stand as my tribute to this talented, modest, sweet and friendly man, who was an old-fashioned gentleman with all the courtesy and kindness that implies. He is missed by so many. I last saw him last June when he was good enough to attend a poetry night I was running at St Helen’s church. He came with his lovely partner, who made him very happy, and read a poem at the open mic. He was a very accomplished reader too.

Goodbye Ian, my friend.