so we pile into the car and dash off to the spl for the sotto voce slam, arriving with mere seconds to spare meaning, handily, i don't get my name on the list so i can sit back and enjoy the readers.
a high standard and a wide range was set and congratulations to claire for walking off with the magnificent statuette. her poem about miners was, i think, my favourite of all the poems i've heard/read by her even if it was her granny poem that got the crowd going (and t blubbing in the car in the way home - mark of a good poem claire!)
it was good for me to sink myself in an evening of poetry as i've been feeling poetically out of sorts lately. i was restored by the range of material on display, from some deft wordery by some young bloke whose name i immediately forgot to anne connelly's clever spin on the doping, in the aeronautical sense. t esp liked her poem about sailor's knitted jersey - ganzie? sometimes it's easy to get into a state where you feel a bit isolated so it was great to be in about a group of like minded people. work for both of us meant we had to dash off so apologies to those we didn;t get a chance to blether to.
and it turns out it was t's first time in the poetry library! i can;t understand how this can be. so next day off we ave together it's definitely a visit back.
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i am so happy that you enjoyed this evening, it is not easy to atune oneself to poetry all the time, and it is good that it is so, i think. but it niggles at you, and there is no escape :-)
you didn't want to read yourself or was it a mistake that your name was not on the list?
Hello! Thanks -- I am still rather shocked. Walking down to the SPL I met Jenny Lindsay in the street who told me the names of a few people who were performing, so before I even got in the building I was thinking "no danger of me winning then, that means I can just sit back and enjoy it!" So then erm, shock ensued. Really glad my pieces all went down so well, though!
I think the young bloke was probably Bram, right? He's one of the Chemical Poets, who are bloody brilliant. And the sailor's gansey poem was my favourite of the night, too, I think... though I also love Jenny Lindsay's stuff.
i arrived just too late to read.
i'm still impressed with the miners poem tho claire. a brave choice for an audiince of 'a certain age'!
i think that'll be the same guy. me and t had a lot of discussion about him on the way back. i love his wordplay, his constructions but, as with a lot of that style, it was delivered so fast, and there was so much of it, i lost a lot of it. can i read any of it anywhere? and also, if they're doing anything in your neck of the woods let me know as i'd be well up for seeing more of what he can do.
i also really liked fiona's(?) stars and sand poem. genuinely lovely.
The Chemical Poets have some stuff here http://www.myspace.com/thechemicalpoets where you can hear more. They also have their first book out with Red Squirrel Press - I've still to get a copy but I hear it's brilliant!
It was a great night, sorry you were too late to read...
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