This week, I’ve begun taking ‘snapshots…‘ out on the road. It’s been a lot of fun, and if the rest of the poetry year turns out to be half as good as these few days in the middle of a cold, grey January, I’ll count myself among the luckiest of men.
On Tuesday I popped in to Wolverhampton to read a set at City Voices, surely one of the longest-running poetry nights in the country – it’s been meeting monthly for something like twenty years, and legendarily only missed one month because of a riot (in the city, not at the event) – and last night I headed up to Doncaster with poet Emma Purshouse to read at Well Spoken, in Doncaster Brewery and Tap.
We’d read at Well Spoken back in April 2019, and it was a pleasure to be asked back, because it’s one of the best poetry nights around. Warm, welcoming, attentive, and in a brewery. What more does a poet need? Honestly, if you enjoy poetry and you’re within striking distance of this part of South Yorkshire, get yourself over there. You won’t regret it.
Coming up next, a trip to Manchester Poets, where I’ll once again be sharing a set of poems from the new book, and – hopefully – heading home with substantially fewer copies of it than I turned up with. If you’re coming along next Wednesday (or even if you’re not) and you’re toying with the idea of buying a copy of ‘snapshots…’ but not entirely sure whether you should, maybe this review from poet Jimmy Andrex in Yorkshire Bylines – and he’s a man who knows his poetic onions – may help sway you. See what you think about his bollocks theory about the Holy Grail of poetry, for starters. It should kick start a few discussions over a pint…
