Tag: lewes poetry

Angst/

Please do not put me on after 9.30pm

Stephen Plaice

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/

Olly packs em in at Lewes Poetry

Lewes_arms

Last night I nearly didn’t get a seat at the Lewes Arms for Oliver’s poetry night. Who were all those people? Where did they come from?

I hate to say it, but having a few posters out this time (as opposed to none last year, despite my begging Olly to send me one to copy and put up around town) made a big difference. AND the date was in the paper, together with forthcoming dates – amazing! We don’t need to read the horoscope any more to find out when they’re on. Nice one, Olly.

There was a very mixed bag of readings, thankfully none too long, as there were quite a few of us wanting to read. I really appreciate it when poets don’t grab more than their fair share of stage-time.

The limerick competition threw up some great entries, although for some reason the better ones got binned early on, much to the annoyance of one lady at the front who got more and more vociferous and I thought she was actually going to start a fight. And we had some loud moaning about ‘having to write a limerick’ from one person who didn’t seem to want to enter into the spirit of it. Ho hum. And no, I didn’t win this time!