Last night I enjoyed the company of those gathered in Wolverhampton, as part of the regular poetry and storytelling event, PASTA (Poets and Storytellers Assemble), at The Arena Wolverhampton, organised by the fabulous trio of Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists, of Emma, Dave, and Steve, representing the poetry world of the West Midlands, as they say ‘gig-by-gig’ .
I have had a particularly difficult few days and I did feel like just staying at home and going to bed early and binge streaming television whilst putting chocolate away as fast as Cadbury’s can make it. But, I have been wanting to go meet Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists, on their own turf, for quite a while now, a bit like a spaghetti western, but in this one my accent seems to revert, slowly, back to a broad midlands accent ay it, and get me cockers blartin.
When I was called up, I stood with composure, and started to make my way down to the stage area. After almost tumbling down the stairs and barrel-rolling onto the stage, like a lummock, feeling like the first time Dumbo entered the circus, I pulled myself together and performed a new spoken word poem, from the selected theme, Buses. My poem is called Not Quite A Double-Decker and, in the second-half I got to remain in my seat, drink orange pop and nibble Jaffa Cakes, whilst watching a video of my poem Once More, from my soon-to-be-released first collection, Whispers in the Wind (shameless plug).
I don’t usually watch my own performances in this way, but this one, which is really personal to me, in that moment, just hit my heart. I just hope I managed to do justice to how important the person in that poem was, and still is, to me. You can see it on YouTube, if you like, I will embed here somewhere.
It was lovely to see lots of new faces there, and a couple of faces I already knew, and there were plenty of light-hearted poems to lift my mood, which was awesome. The one thing I have grown to love most about poetry is hearing other performers particularly new ones, and see them grow as I have. I have really enjoyed connecting back with my West Midlands roots, with in-person events, having performed at Birmingham, Walsall, Coventry, Ironbridge, and now Wolverhampton. If anyone knows of a Darlaston group I would love to come along and read my Ode to Darlo’.
Until then stay fabulous.
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