Reading poetry

During June I read a lot of poetry. It has been a lovely thing to do. Some books were by poets I have met through open mics, some by poets I have connected with online, and some I just deeply admire.

First up I read Wonderful by

Harry Baker

after seeing him perform in the Chester Literature Festival. I have seen Harry perform before and have his book, Ashamed, and I was so pleased to see him on tour so close to where I am currently based. His performance and writing style is so joyful and touching. When he is performing I hang on his every word, listening to the rhythm take me on an adventure of sound and stories. The book is beautiful as it stops to tell the story of the poems, which feels as welcoming as his shows are. As a reader I enjoy the vulnerable honesty of the additional narrative of these introductions and footnotes.

I was also lucky enough to see

Kate Ireland

support Harry, and I look forward to listening to her next spoken word album that comes out later this week, as Kate’s work is so wonderful to listen to. If you haven’t found her yet, you are welcome to this introduction.

Next up, I moved on to a book by

Salena Godden

, which Kate had recommended in a recent writing workshop. With Grief, Love and Fury is a powerful collection that weaves humanity, hope, fear, menopause, aging, loss, friendship, love throughout. There is care for the wider world we live in that shines through with justified rage at the injustice of the world. Salena’s writing on her relationship with writing vs performance was so incredibly honest about the two sides of being a poet. How to serve the writer best and feed the hunger to perform. Which, of course, starts with the living. Then the writing. Then the performing. The joy of it, but also the selling of it. I think any poet would recognise a part of themselves in these poems, but they are so distinctly Salena and her passion for all the parts of her work is so brilliantly brought to life.

Next up, was You Missed the Best Part, by Bradley Taylor. I have come across Bradley online through videos of his incredible live performances. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="

I have been itching to see him ‘IRL’ but so far the planets have not aligned, so I did have to miss the best part, in his own words, of seeing him perform and buy the book. I missed the chance to see him in Manchester when he was programmed with Verbose (a night I used to co-host) just as I moved away from Manchester, and then I missed him again when he was recently in Wrexham, but I was delighted with this lovely dedication inside the book:

When I am not ‘out there’ performing as much as I used to, holding on to the title of ‘poet’ feels that bit harder than when I had a list of performances coming up. But this is my living phase. My reading phase. My writing and performance phases will return and are not fully over, just slower than the break neck speed I used to go at. Bradley’s book is peppered with stories of where he performed his work, or why he wrote it. He also has a selection of QR codes so you can watch him perform some of the poems in the collection. This is something I did with my own collection, including links to readings on Bandcamp, which is something that brings the rhythm of the words on the page more alive. I loved Bradley’s book and I am determined I will see ‘the best bit’ of his performance some time in the future.

My next book, is a book by a poet I met on the Manchester open mic circuit. Louise’s poems have always blown my mind. This collection is filled with poems about loss and love.Her imagery and technical skill as a poet is breathtaking. She has made me cry (in a good way) more times than I can remember. She has also made me luxuriate in her use of language. She is no nonsense eloquence. An utterly authentic voice and I was waiting to snap her book up the second she said it was on the way. It absolutely lived up to my expectations.

Speaking of other poets I met on the Manchester open mic circuit releasing books I couldn't wait to snap up, my final book is by Antony Szmierek . Antony is now more than a poet, but also a pop star, who has just taken Glastonbury by storm and is a Radio 6 regular. I remember hearing his first foray into putting his poems to music in a lockdown version of Verbose, and he’s been riding high in my spotify playlists ever since. His first independent music releases featured the impossible square logo that now sits beautifully on the front of a FABER-ALT book. The book is essentially the lyrics of his debut album ‘Service Station at the End of the Universe’ , with annotations and exploded view of the poems. There are some extra stories and poems in there, including an all time favourite Ecuador Steve, that I remember hearing on open mic’s and an early BBC Upload Manchester show. Antony’s poetry is a gorgeous mix of wit, lyricism, hope and emotion with storytelling to burn. There are so many phrases in his work that make me smile to hear and others that have me in tears every single play, and now, read.

This is more poetry than I would read in a usual month. Usually, it would be around 2 books and all the rest would be read online, either here or instagram. I really enjoyed luxuriating in all these poems during June. It felt like being on a lovely poetry retreat, but it was just me reading in coffee shops or on the sofa when my family were watching something else on the TV (the news is a lot recently isn’t it?).

I also think to write poetry you need to read poetry. You need to see the art of what is possible. None of these books are the kind that I would have had the ‘pleasure’ of reading at school, but they all make me feel so much better about the world for reading them. They all care so deeply about the world they live in. They invite you in with such generosity of imagination and delight in words. They don’t waste a single word or a single feeling. They are not scared of showing you a part of their hearts.

All of them are incredible performers as well as poets. Their words on the page are wonderful. Their words heard elevate them even further. I look up to them all in some way and I already know that I will never regret the time I spent with any of these books.

Thank you for reading Poems & That, a publication that explores what I have learned through poetry, beyond the poems. If you are interested in my poetry, you can find my book here. All royalties go to Choose Love and Refuge.