The Golden Hour: Infused and Bemused

Right this post is going to be brief. The extremely excellent Ryan Van Winkle asked me if I wanted to do a poetry gig in a van. I knew I'd regret it if I said no. So I said yes. Even though I was a little unsure about how I'd handle the intimacy of a very small audience in a small (but ever so funky) van in the middle of the toon.

I have some themes to keep in mind when choosing and writing my poems - I have a couple already that I know will fit perfectly but I do need to crack on with rehearsing, writing, re-writing, whatever it's going to take to make this gig really special.

Check out  http://www.gorillaperfume.com/ to find out some more background about the tour (it's sponsored by those rather lovely people at Lush) and to find out more about the other venues and performers

Take a tour inside the venue - Click here to look inside! I think you'll agree it looks fucking amazing. So if you're in Newcastle town centre on Friday October 12th... Come!

River Runs

I'm trying something new here... actually blogging about something I'm working on whilst I'm working on it... novel, huh? The detail is a bit vague at this stage but I'll know more later in September.

River Runs is a collaborative project run by Radikal Words (featuring Jeff Price, Alfie Crow, Kate Fox, Simma, Aidan Clarke, Ben Holland, Bridie Jackson and me). What with the whole MA thing I've not had a chance to have a think about what my involvement in the project exactly entails but I reckon immersing myself (see what I did there) in river poems can't hurt can it? I'm also going to spend some time getting to know the Tyne a little better - I've worked in a theatre alongside it for the best part of eleven years so I reckon now's as good a time as any to stop taking it for granted and properly pay it some attention. I should probably get down to ~Flow before it shuts shop for the summer too.

Anyway, here are a couple of the poems I've been reading.
Birmingham River - Roy Fisher
What the evangelist should have said - Kei Miller

So as I haven't got anything in mind I reckon I'll be defaulting to my usual free-writing to kick start the poeting bit of my brain. I shall also have to do something about the earworm currently on loop in my head - Drowned Lovers by Kate Rusby. (It is a mint song though.)