Where my poetry pocket money has been going

June 3rd and I think I’ve already blown my poetry pocket money for this month.

First of all I’ve subscribed to Poetry London which I’ve been meaning to do for ages, and I asked to start with the Spring 13 issue, which has resulted in both Spring and Summer issues arriving within days of each other. A feast!

Today I was reading John Field’s brilliant review of Ben Parker’s first pamphlet ‘The Escape Artists‘ from tall-lighthouse, and couldn’t resist buying it, being only £4. You can’t even buy a glass of wine for that in London. (By the way, if you haven’t already, do read Adele Ward’s impassioned blog posts about how we MUST buy directly from small publishers.)

Then today I entered the Mslexia poetry comp for the first time, having told myself I needed to enter some competitions this year, but only big ones otherwise it gets horribly expensive. And yes, I have also entered the Bridport – well, a gal’s gotta try! I did have a go at the Mslexia Pamphlet comp last year, but more for the experience of trying to put a pamphlet together than any thoughts of glory – there was none, anyway.

Maybe I’m feeling a bit more confident at the moment having had some good news recently, but nothing I’m able to blab about here, at least for the time being – sorry!

My blog’s seen a flurry of new readers after the lovely Abegail Morley linked to Poetgal from her own blog, The Poetry Shed.  If you haven’t read her powerful collection “How to pour madness into a teacup’ I can certainly recommend it, I found myself reading it in one sitting.