Flying the Albatross

With the launch of my new collection approaching at pace, it was good to have a mini dress-rehearsal at Riff Corner Poetry Open Mic Night in Clevedon at the beginning of September, despite it taking me nearly an hour to drive the short distance home from my place of work through extensive roadworks, and then a return journey via Tickenham Hill and Failand in mist that was verging on fog. All hail autumn. 

Nevertheless, it was an interesting evening in good company. Open mic-ers currently get a little longer to read than at your average open mic session, and it was good to hear two or three poems, rather than the usual swift single, although this might have to change at some point as the evening was well attended and is clearly gaining in popularity. Thanks to Tim Burroughs for inviting me to read there, and for the above photo. 

Thanks are due also to Ben Banyard for asking me to read at Portishead's wildly successful ArtPort festival at the end of September. We'd been due to read alongside Bob Walton, but as he was still convalescing, Sue Hill, the other half of The Write Box, stepped into the breach. It was a lovely event, again well-attended and one I hope will be repeated next year.

 

 

My journey to Trowbridge Stanza on the first weekend in October was eventful, as someone drove into the back of my car by the Downs in Bristol. I was a bit shaken, but managed to complete the journey without further incident, and thoroughly enjoyed reading on the same  bill as Saili Katebe. We'd been due to read alongside each other back in 2020, as part of the Bristol Lyra Poetry Festival, which had been cancelled at the start of the pandemic, so it felt right and good to finally do that.

My penultimate autumn gig was in Bristol, as part of the Ten Bristol Poets event running at the Bristol Literary Film Festival in aid of St Peter's Hospice. It was a privilege to read alongside the following poets: 

TOP  1. Tim Burroughs  2. Jan Swann  3. Charles Thompson  4. Kaz Michael  5. Martin Rieser

BOTTOM:  6.  Helen Sheppard  7. David Punter  8. Me  9. Bob Walton  10. Melanie Branton

I enjoyed the opportunity of reading a few of my Bristol poems, from my collection 'Learning Finity', for a change, including one about my grandmother, who died in the care of the staff of St Peter's Hospice. Here's an earlier recording of it: 

 

My last autumn gig is Sunday 24th November and it's not necessary to leave the comfort of your own home to hear it, because I'm guest poet on West Wilts Radio's The Poetry Place at 3pm or any time you please, as it's streamable worldwide here.
 

Finally, it was great to have a poem from Love the Albatross in the latest issue of IDP's The Dawntreader ...

and also here, in the issue 4 of The Fig Tree.

Reviews of Love the Albatross can be found in Ink Sweat & Tears, London Grip and Tim Fellows' Substack.

Poetry in the lengthening days of spring

After my trip to Devon last month and the IsamBards' poetry walk through the centre of Bristol, I might have expected things to quieten down a little, but poetry has continued to throw up plenty of surprises and delights.

The first, two days before our poetry walk, was the Bristol Poetry Institute's annual reading by Denise Riley, which had been postponed from just before Christmas. Having written an essay on Riley's collection, 'Say Something Back', while I was studying for my MA in Creative Writing, I was looking forward to re-encountering those mordant poems, but quite unprepared for the added intensity of hearing the poet read them and I have to say, they floored me to the point where I was a bibbling wreck when it came to have the evening's poetry purchase signed by Riley. Driving back along the Downs in the setting sun, all I wanted to do was get home and write - a common reaction after hearing a truly great poet (which sadly doesn't happen as often in Bristol as it used to.) 

The above-mentioned essay also considered 'Deaf Republic' by Ukrainian poet Ilya Kaminsky, and as luck would have it, Kaminsky gave the Annual Lecture of the Poetry Society on the theme 'Poetry in a Time of Crisis'.  Since it was held in Liverpool, my attendance was only virtual but it was a privilege to hear one of my very favourite poets addressing such an important matter, and also reading some of his poems from 'Deaf Republic'. 

Maybe the lecture will be made available in perpetuity in due course. I hope so, because there was too much to think about in one listening. In the meantime - or if not - here's Kaminsky reading 'We lived happily during the war'. 

Two more excellent poets guest-read at Satellite of Love this month, namely, Emma Purshouse and Steve Pottinger, both of whom manage to be hugely entertaining and thought-provoking, at the same time, which is A Feat, and Silver Street Poetry was our best yet, bidding farewell to the local poetry journal Raceme as it published its final issue. Three of the four editors guest read for us, and the open mic-ers who'd had a poem published in one of its issues all came clutching their contributor's copy to read from. I was honoured to emcee this farewell event, and I'll miss Raceme, but if its demise means the editors have more time to concentrate on their own poems, that will be some consolation.

One of my own poems - 'When an albatross crash-lands in a dream' - found a home at Ink Sweat & Tears this month, and settled in very comfortably, and London Grip published a thoughtful review of 'Learning Finity' by Clare Morris. Thanks to everyone involved with both of these forays into print. 

Finally, I got to read some of my poems at a bijou bookshop that hasn't long opened in Bristol, namely, Heron Books in Clifton arcade, along with Mab Jones, whose latest pamphlet is also published by Indigo Dreams. It was a beautiful late afternoon, full of leaves and sunlight and blossom, and the palpable feeling that summer is nearly here at last. Thanks to my publisher, Ronnie Goodyer, for agitating on my behalf, and proprietor Lizzie for organising it all.