getting out and doing poetry

Bristol poets on the loose; Deborah, Colin and Pameli

It's been a busy week or so. Last Friday I was guest poet at Can Openers, Poetry Can's monthly open mic lunchtime event at the old fire station in Bristol's Broadmead. 

I looked up the very first time I'd read a poem in public; that was also at a Can Openers, in Bristol Central Library that time, eleven years ago. I walked in and the first people I met ("are you here for the poetry?") were Annie McGann and Alan Summers, the very first to welcome me into Bristol's poetry scene.

This time, I was reading from Drawn Chorus; and suffered the sort of pre-event nerves that had me retching that morning. 

It went pretty well, though, I think, and it was nice to catch up with some friendly faces I'd not seen for ages. Sadly, no photos.

Monday's launch party was at Monty's, a rather nice cafe run by May Colquhoun in the Montpelier area of Bristol. She also kindly invited me to display the illustrations from the book, so I had a frenzy of ordering up prints and buying frames from IKEA ( as you do). 

And the evening also went very well; there was a nice crowd of people, some of whom had travelled a fair old way to be there, like Adrian, Carol and Lorraine here, friends from the canal.

...alas, no other pictures. 

Colin Brown, Deborah Harvey and Pameli Benham also read some of their poems from the Gert Macky back catalogue and elsewhere. Thank you!

Poetry Can is a great organisation, doing good things in the Bristol community. And they've lost their Arts Council funding. Which is a right bugger.