Stort Poetry Group Open Reading: May 2, 7.30, upstairs at Waterstones

The Blake event went extremely well, I thought, with a shared light thrown on William Blake’s compelling but often quite obscure writing. As I informed everyone at that event, May’s meeting is an open reading, which I am just publicising at the moment. It’s linked with the Stortford Music Festival, which is this year returning to its roots with a more local focus, and is a series of events around the town, labelled in a rather student-oriented fashion as The Crawl. I’m calling it an Open Mic event – even though we are happily live and unplugged! So, really, it is an opportunity to read whatever you want, as always whether it is what you have written, or simply poems you would like to read and share. We can decide on the evening whether we talk about and respond to what people read (as we often do, though the “Open Mic” format I think would discourage). These things usually work on the basis of time slots, so if you want to actually book one, do let me know (though I expect it can all be arranged on the night!) It might be an opportunity for anyone who wants to to read more than just a single poem – up to 10 minutes anyone?

Regrettably this looks as though it will be the last event held at Waterstones. Patrick will be a citizen of South Devon by that date, so Nick Crofts will be the person from the bookshop. It looks as though subsequent events will be at Coffee Corner (though we can obviously discuss this more).

Enchanted Labyrinth

I shall be reading at Coffee Corner on May 1 – Enchanted Labyrinth, arranged by Anna Scott (also as part of the Stortford Music Festival), with music (including from Anna, who is prodigiously talented), video (from Nick Crofts) and also poetry from a young London-based poet called matt martin, whose work could be described as minimalist, with variations on words and sounds – which turns out to be quite joyous and very humorous. He has a website at eocenepress press. It’s £15 (delicious food provided!), and easiest to get tickets from Coffee Corner direct.