Then there was more

Poet Alison Brackenbury reading at the BlueGate Poets Open Mic night

Prize winning poet Alison Brackenbury brought her new collection Then to the Swindon Festival of Literature on a typically varied BlueGate Poets Open Mic night. Reading poems of glory, nature and astonishment, Brackenbury veiled the overflowing room with images of flora and fauna. But the most striking thing about the night was the variety on offer, one minute the guest poet was describing a Lapwing luring ‘hawks away from its chicks’ the next Martin Malone was tenderly reading about how he had shaved his mother’s head. Eve Kimber drafted in Shaun Butler and Jill Sharp for an experimental Elizabethan motet style poem which wove its words in many varied directions. There were visitors from Newbury with poems about unfeasibly large cassette collections they had inherited, a tale including what may have been an old Chinese proverb (Success has many father’s but failure’s always a bastard) and a drum/dance/poetry mash-up from Robert Stredder and Jackie Bardwell. The surprise appearance of acclaimed Irish poet Leland Bardwell capped an eclectic evening, her gorgeous poetry conjuring long-lasting images. Even Domestic Cherry‘s Mrs Hongo popped up as Hilda Sheehan read the poem Glow from the third edition of the poetry annual, the poem ends with a glowing woman emerging out of the top of a supermarket, as festival-goers left the GW Hotel tonight I’m sure a few of them were shining.