Last night I was again reading poetry, this time in a rather different environment. My wife acts with the Edinburgh People’s Theatre, one of Edinburgh’s most venerable amateur companies. Every year, the company has a Poetry Evening. Members and their families can read their own poems or other people’s.
About 14(?) people sat in a semi-circle. There was plenty of wine and finger food. There was Stevie Smith, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Rupert Brooke, Kathleen Jamie, Tom Leonard, A. A. Milne, Ian McMillan, Wendy Cope, and others. There was self-penned doggerel, ode, elegy and reflection. There was humour and sadness. The actual quality of the writing varied, as it always does in an free-for-all situation, but the evening was very laid-back and enjoyable.
I read a few poems, spacing them out through the evening and, believe it or not, sold three copies of The Clown of Natural Sorrow.
After Andrew Shields' comments to my post yesterday, it appears that posting set lists is about to catch on! So here’s what I read yesterday:
1. Bananas
2. Love Poem from the Pot to the Kettle
3. Girl Playing Sudoku on the 7.15
4. Taxi
5. Crossing the Border
3 comments:
Yes, setlists, awesome! And two of my faves from the book (Taxi and Sudoku).
PS: Me just an old Deadhead, y'know.
Sounds a good way to spend an evening, shame mmore organisations don't do this.
Sorry I missed your Shore Poets readinng, I got all my dates messed up this month. We seem to be in this routine that makes every week the same, dashing north on weekends to see my MIL.
Girl playing and Crossing the Border are two very fine poems.
Congrats on the sales too.
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