Mike in Finland

Saturday 26 November 2011

Poetry Reading


It´s more than a month ago now, that I gave a reading from my collection, Midas Touch, at The Poetry Cafe, with fellow Ward Wood poets, Peter Phillips and David Cooke. At last, I´ve got round to posting a report and a couple of pictures from the event on my blog.

The Poetry Cafe is a great venue, very cosy and intimate and we had an appreciative audience that comfortably filled the basement of the cafe. Peter read poems from his collection, No School Tie, as well as some others.

Cover pciture for No School Tie Link to shop

Some of his poems were wonderfully comic and others very sensitive, and some were both at once. I can highly recommend this collection.

David read poems from a variety of publications: magazines and earlier collections, including some poignant memories of family members.



We each did a 15-minute slot, followed by poets from the floor. A very pleasant evening. Thanks to Adele Ward for organising and hosting the event with her customary flair and charm.

Here I am, doing my bit. One of the poems I read was `Things´. I have included the text of the poem, just in case any readers of my blog don´t know it, to give you a flavour of the evening.




Things

There are these things:
one half of a double door stands ajar,

through the frosted pane of its closed partner
the curtain´s blue stain visible on the wall.

The empty floor echoes to no footfall.
A mirror reflects a key on the hallstand.

These things are troubled -
they know exactly what´s happened.