Readings – Page 15 – Robin Houghton

Poems/ 11/12/2012

New poem by Harry Man

Earlier this year I was on a Poetry School course in Lambeth and met Harry Man. I really liked his work and I think he and I were two of only four participants who completed the course (out of about 15).

I came across Harry’s name again recently and had a snoop around the internet, discovering all sorts of things that he’s far too modest to shout about, for example he won 3rd prize in this year’s Cardiff International Poetry Competition. Wowza!

Harry’s agreed to be an open mic buddy when I take my first tentative steps onto the London poetry scene next year. Can’t wait! Plus, I asked him for a poem and he very kindly sent me this…enjoy!

Hiromi Miyake
Japanese 56kg International Women’s Weightlifting Silver Medalist

The audience at the front; dark white bread in an oven,
each of them had expressions uncompressed as lakes.
Snatch, and nostrils of Mingjuan, trembled, flaring
pleased and quiet like a mirror, a muscle, a whistle string.
Arrow root lifting-powder poltergeisting about the place.
Wang Mingjuan was a slow motion cat leap into red towels –
happy to be here, happy to compete, happening,
Hiromi Miyake, Hiromi Miyake – not City, Red Army,
The just so so beautiful tonight ArcelorMittal Orbit,
“but works in a bank part time to fund her appetite
for lifting weights…”
the bar is seven reds, retinas, clean, high over heads
of state.

Readings/ 30/11/2012

The last Pighog night for 2012

Had a lovely evening last night at the Redroaster in Brighton, at Pighog’s last event of the season. As well as the winners of the Moss Rich competition, we had sets from Brendan Cleary and Robert Hamberger both of which I really enjoyed, and an eventful open mic, more about which later. Brendan (who I’d not seen perform before) lived up to the image of the ‘Irish poet’, reading poems mostly about booze, pubs and women… very funny and great delivery. Having said that, also included a number of very moving unpublished poems about his late brother.

I had a slight moment of panic when Robert Hamberger turned to me in the queue for the drinks. “Hello! I’ve seen your blog!” he said and I suddenly recalled the video blog I did a few weeks back, when I read a poem of his. “Oh… you … saw me reading your poem…” Thankfully, he didn’t seem to mind, and said he enjoyed hearing someone else read it. Actually I can’t remember if he said it was interesting or whether he liked it .. he might just have been being polite!

On my table I got talking to a lovely couple from Burwash one of whom turned out to be Richard Ormrod, the second prize winner in the Moss Rich competition. I told them about our forthcoming Brighton Stanza event at the Redroaster (ooh, I must blog officially about that soon) and they in turn told me about open mic events at the Troubadour in London. I do get all the emails about the Troubadour, but I’ve never summoned up the courage to go and read there. Maybe that’s one of my goals for 2013.

The evening drew to a close with drama at the open mic – I’m always moaning about open mics being too hurried, but in fact this was one where I wish the readers had been limited to one poem. A couple of people rather took the (open) micky a bit by going on at length. Plus, the last reader only managed about 3 lines of his poem due to the fact that he’d ‘been to the pub’ and couldn’t read what he’d written. Several LONG minutes later and after he’d called upon a member of the audience to ‘help’ him, a few more aborted goes at reading the sodding thing, some grappling and grabbing of the mic, a bit of F-ing and blinding, he left the stage peacefully and we all breathed freely again. That’s poets for you!

Angst/ 08/11/2012

Good news, and a few doubts

What a great week. An excellent Bonfire Night, President Obama re-elected, and then I get an email with the subject line ‘Congratulations from Poetry News‘ and find my ‘absent’ themed poem will be in the December edition. Ah, where would we be without small victories? Because I admit I am STUPIDLY excited.

It’s my first proper effort at using spaces in a poem (instead of commas and my beloved dashes, which are a bit of a habit), something I have Catherine Smith to thank for as it was one of the things she got us doing on a Poetry School course I was on earlier this year.

So here’s to experimentation. But … I’m looking forward to ‘one day’ developing some sort of consistent style. Or is that like wanting to grow up too soon? Is it good to keep trying different things and going off on tangents? Poets I meet when workshopping are often working on bigger, over-arching projects or themes, and I sometimes wonder if I’ll never get to the stage of a publishable pamphlet unless I settle into writing a coherent body of poems, rather than blurting out isolated pieces that have nothing in common. What do you think?

Books/ 09/10/2012

Readings, launches, and the Carmen Rollers

Readers at the Frogmore anthology launch in Lewes — As we were reading: Jeremy Page, Julia O’Brien, Robin Houghton

Lots of excitement in the past week. First of all, National Poetry Day and the launch of the Frogmore Press anthology Poems from the Old Hill on Thursday evening. It was standing room only as we’d all brought family and friends to cheer us on. It was fab to see some of my non-poet friends there, just hoping they enjoyed it and went away to tell everyone how great poetry readings are.

Big thank you to Charlotte for capturing some pics of some of us reading. We did look up occasionally, promise! Actually there’s some video footage too, which I may just post here if I can get my nerve up.

One non-poet friend got in a muddle about the date and venue and turned up a day late – but at least she went to Ieko on the High Street so in instead of us she got the lovely Catherine Smith reading from her new collection Otherwhere. Not so bad, eh? I just hope she didn’t accost Catherine and say “but I thought Robin Houghton was reading?” Tee hee.

And THEN on Sunday evening I was persuaded along to the monthly open mic event at the Baltica cafe by my stand-up performance poet friend Louise Taylor, neither of us quite knowing what to expect. But Louise being such a pro she had her material at the ready and performed two VERY funny classics of hers (the second by popular request, poor L being a tad hungover from her birthday party the night before.)

Halfway through the evening (not just poetry but also various acoustic musical acts) about a hundred people piled in, and it turned out to be none other than singing friend Polly with her entire family (including her 90-year old mother) fresh from a four-hour operatic marathon at the Duke of York’s in Brighton. A number of them formed themselves up as members of two close-harmony groups, the Carmen Rollers and the Old Spice Boys, and sang a couple of numbers. Grand entertainment. And what a nice evening – all those people turning out to perform for each other, rather than staying in and watching Downton Abbey. Love it!

Readings/ 28/09/2012

Pighog night in aid of breast cancer charity

A very good evening yesterday at the Redroaster in Brighton: always lovely to hear Charlotte Gann reading, including some of the goodies familiar to me from her pamphlet ‘The Long Woman’ and some new poems I’d had the privilege of seeing ‘in development’. And she looks so striking under the lights! The photo is taken rather at a distance, sorry about that – but I opted for comfort over the benefits of being close to the action – the leather sofa at the back was just too tempting to ignore.

Clare Best explained her connection with the cause and read from her collection ‘Excisions’ – and just as at the launch of it at the Needlewriters there was such a charged silence while she read. Very moving. Plus Clare has such a calm, expressive voice – actually I could imagine her taking over from Harriet Cass at Radio 4. Must suggest it!

During the second half Kim Lasky spoke about her work with women undergoing treatment for breast cancer, and we heard poetry written by three of them, one of whom read her own material and told us she’d never written anything before this – testimony to the power of creative writing therapy I guess.

During the interval I had an interesting conversation with John Davies from Pighog Press, who said he’d heard my name mentioned in various places – ooh, I thought, that sounds promising – “what, you mean to do with poetry..?” “Um, no….” Oh well! At least I’m on the radar, sort of!

Very nice also to catch up with Julia ahead of our both reading at the Needlewriters next week – we swapped tactics although didn’t get as far as discussing outfits. He he!

Angst/ 21/09/2012

Please do not put me on after 9.30pm

The autumn poetry scene has swung into action. On Wednesday evening Clare Best hosted an evening of readings at the Needlemakers – something enjoyable from all the readers, a good mix including Jackie Wills, John Davies and Clare herself.

I enjoyed it all but I do tend to very suddenly have a concentration crash at 9.40pm – nothing to do with excess alcohol, I can assure you (I came out with very little cash, and although Charlotte was looking after a basket of fivers – entrance money – for part of the evening, she kept me well away from it. Thanks for buying me a drink though, C!) Sitting with us was a non-poet neighbour-friend who asked us poetry questions which of course got us going. It was all very fine and civilised but I left making a mental note that I hope NEVER to have to read last at an event, and certainly not beyond 10pm.

Then last night was Lewes Poetry, the evening at the Lewes Arms run by Oli Gozzard, famous for its raucous interval limerick competition and near punch-ups during the judging process. I haven’t been to the last couple of events so was looking forward to it. Unfortunately we were late – I dragged Nick along, promising him it wouldn’t even have got going by 9pm, but when we arrived we were just in time for a long interval. Oh good, I thought, the limerick comp! But alas, it has been DROPPED due to ‘public demand’ – what? I miss a couple of sessions and my favourite bit has been ditched because someone got offended. This was Lewes Poetry’s USP, so a big mistake IMHO. Thankfully, Oli read a very rude poem involving ‘coalitions’ and ‘positions’ so managed to slip some welcome hilarity under the radar. I should also mention how fine it was to see Stephen Plaice there (pictured above) – back on the poetry scene, he tells me, so watch out for more from him.

But anyway, I just happened to have a short ditty in my back pocket (!) so when Oli asked if I wanted to read I said ‘yes’ – not thinking of course that being a latecomer I’d be on LAST.

So there I was reading at almost ten pm – so much for my resolve.

Readings/ 17/09/2012

Brighton Pecha Kucha Night

Robin Houghton presenting at Pecha Kucha Night Brighton

Last Friday I was one of the presenters at Pecha Kucha Night at the Lighthouse in Brighton.

If you’re not familiar with what it’s all about: Pecha Kucha (or PK for short, let’s say) apparently approximates to the Japanese for ‘chit chat’, and it was devised by a firm of american architects based in Japan, who were fed up with having to sit through long, rambling ‘creative’ meetings that went nowhere. So PK is a short format for giving presentations. You have to use 20 slides (no more, no less) and each is shown for exactly 20 seconds. The slides move on automatically and the entire presentation lasts 6 minutes 40 seconds. No chance of over-running or boring anyone!

PK Nights happen all over the world, and they consist of 10 or so presenters who each have a chance to talk about something they’re interested in, to anyone who will listen. The evenings are run by people from the creative community, not-for profit, and the topics tend to be wide-ranging, often fascinating and sometimes hilarious (it’s pretty informal). Last week we had talks on the man who discovered how to treat diabetes with insulin, an impassioned plea to invade the Isle of Man, a talk about teaching animation to kids and plenty other thought-provoking stuff.

My contribution was a bit different in that it was more of a performance and less imparting information. I showed twenty photos by the fantastic Simon Dale, and wrote 3 short narrative poems to go with them, which I read out. (I did a similar thing at a previous PK night a few years ago). I really enjoyed it – it makes a change from just giving a reading and the addition of the photos adds another layer of interest. I had some nice comments afterwards which was great. I don’t expect it was everyone’s cup of tea, but I like the idea of introducing new audiences to poetry in a subversive way – and if they didn’t like the words at least they had some lovely pics to look at!

Thanks to audience member Jonathan who took the photo I’ve used here.

Books/ 02/09/2012

Smith, McCullough, Curtis, Lasky at the Red Roaster

Lovely evening last week at the Red Roaster in Brighton, for the launch of Abi Curtis’s new collection The Glass Delusion. Not too crowded, some familiar faces and a really nice selection of work being read.

I’ve a soft spot for Abi ever since she and I were involved with the University of Sussex ‘Poetry Soc’ back in her undergrad days, when I was doing my digital media masters and half-wondering whether I should have been on a Creative Writing MA (which was the loser in my ‘either-or’ decision about what to study as a precursor to my new post-marketing post-corporate life.) Thanks to Abi I took part in my first poetry reading in the (now defunct?) Crypt student bar on campus. Very exciting for me to find out years later that she’d gone on to a career as a poet and academic. I loved her first collection Unexpected Weather and her reading/speaking style is gentle, measured and appealing (“It’s only a little poem, and it’s just called ‘Rabbit’…”) So far I’m enjoying ‘The Glass Delusion’ a lot. More about this in a future post.

Strangely enough, I think this was only the second time I’ve heard Catherine Smith reading her poetry – the last time she was at the Needlewriters in Lewes we heard one of her short stories. I have to say I really enjoyed hearing her, and the selection she chose included a very powerful one which she said some have called ‘an anti-marriage poem, but it’s not, it’s an anti-shopping poem’ which kind of made my ears prick up right away. I think it was probably from her collection ‘Lip’ which I need to seek out. Catherine also read from her forthcoming book, and one poem I recognised about her ‘imagined’ daughters, maybe I’d read it in a magazine?

I’ve really enjoyed John McCullough’s The Frost Fairs and John is an engaging reader. It was great to hear again ‘Reading Frank O’Hara on the Brighton Express’ and ‘Sneakers’ – the latter about a shipload of trainers that floated around the world, which I was a bit annoyed about because I’ve always wanted to write a poem about the ‘Friendly Floatees’ – but now it might seem derivative! Would like to have heard him read one of my favourites from the collection, ‘Sleeping Hermaphrodite’ – maybe next time 🙂

Books/ 23/08/2012

Upcoming poetry events in Lewes, Brighton & Seaford…

Very pleased to be invited by Tom Roper to be one of the poets reading at Seaford Live this year on September 12th. Last year I did the open mic. It’s an intimate venue – the Crypt Gallery – rather lends itself to ghost stories or something creepy. I’ll see what I can conjour up…

Then two days later it’s Pecha Kucha Night at the Lighthouse in Brighton, and I’m planning to present a kind of poetic ‘happening’. PK is all about showing 20 slides, each for 20 seconds, and providing some commetary to go with them. I’m doing something very similar to the last time I took part which was a couple of years ago now, when I showed photos by my talented friend Simon Dale, acccompanied by some poetry they inspired. No ditties of publishing quality but it was certainly different, and even if you don’t care for the poetry you can enjoy the photos! There is always a fantastic range of subjects at a PK night so worth coming along to.

And then on October 4th it’s National Poetry Day and the launch of Poems from the Old Hill at the Needlemakers in Lewes, which will mean reading in front of quite a few REAL poets – ooo-er!

Photo of Seaford Crypt Gallery from http://www.littlemissmortar.com/

Mags & Blogs/ 11/07/2012

Ambit at the Betsey Trotwood

Took Lucy along to an Ambit poetry night yesterday at the Betsey Trotwood pub, a little island of old London tahn amidst the chaos and cacophony of Farringdon Road and on the edge of Clerkenwell Green.

We weren’t prepared for the evening to start on time, but it did, so we missed a little of Kevin Crossley-Holland, and the upstairs room was COSY, but we really enjoyed the evening. Loved Jim Burns. Three headline poets and an entertaining short story from Eley Williams, plus an interesting open mic (with only one woman reading, most unusual).

Lucy did her bit riding the faders and even mopping up someone’s spilt beer (she likes to muck in!) and I bought a copy of Ambit, after hurling all sorts of unveiled hints about when I might hear about my submissions (I should never have had that, um, 2nd glass of wine). With a 9pm end we sauntered back to the station and had a very civilised ride home bypassing Victoria. And I didn’t get rained on. Result!

Category: Readings