A lovely afternoon spent on the 6th floor of an office block just overlooking regents canal next to Broadway Market thanks to the invitation of Clover Peake and Giovanna Coppola, to read at the Five Years Gallery at their series Parole Parole, alongside some wonderful poets. This is exactly the kind of reading I love to be a part of – legitimate and genuine, original and careful, supportive and considered. I heard some poets new to me, and performed an exchange of my Estates of Westeros poems to the group, asking everyone to read with me. I was still fragile after being a bit unwell and the experience undoubtedly repaired me somewhat. Loads of beautiful pictures here http://www.fiveyears.org.uk/archive2/pages/206/Reading_Groups/Programme/24.html
Less Than Three poetry reading- March 18th
Very pleased to be introducing this event, to be involved at all, on March 18th. It's an admirable beginning for a new reading series which has it's roots in a collaborative venture between many worthy endeavours / poets. 3AM press is the really admirable publishing foray that has shot out of the magazine whose poetry I am happy to wrangle, pioneered by Christiana Spens, a great novelist in her own right, and Susan Tomaselli, who is responsible for Gorse amongst other things. The Quietus, hugely established in terms of musicology, has shot out into contemporary poetry under Karl Thomas Smith, with a gentle crush, kindly publishing some of my work recently. And Alex MacDonald and Francine Elena are both poets peers whose work I actively follow and have had the pleasure of hosting at events and in 3am magazine past and present. Both extraordinary nice people too. Which does make a difference in the world. Come along, it's 2 quid.