Festival Chronicle

Mabel’s House

Domestic Cherry’s Swindon Festival Of Literature residency continued at Artsite Post Modern as Mabel Watson threw one of her infamous house parties. Continue reading →

Steve Jones

‘Just in case there are any people down from London for the day I’ll translate the Latin because I know that the highly educated people of Swindon won’t need me to’. Continue reading →

Ben Okri

Writer Ben Okri talks in poetry,

especially when talking of poetry,

‘the very nature of it is wild,

all poetry is spiritual’.

But Okri also considers poetry so powerful

that we  have to be careful with it.

Tyrants have been known to be poets

bad poets.

We are walking amongst monsters

these flowers

are protection against evil.

Follow the song.

Poetry wants nothing from you but

cascades of sound.

Make our hearts a festival.

Hilda Sheehan launches ‘The Night My Sister Went To Hollywood’

Poetry, that intellectual, inaccessible, grey, clam-like creature was coaxed out of hiding and made to dance in Swindon tonight as Hilda Sheehan launched her debut collection ‘The Night My Sister Went To Hollywood’. Hosted by Martin Malone, the night featured gorgeous piano from Dorothea Van Velde and poetry of the highest quality from special guest Robert Vas Dias, consequently the Platform could do little else than slip on their poetic tap shoes and join in. Hilda writes poetry that baffles, excites and grins, often all in one word, she is, as Martin Malone acknowledged, a very different poet who has used her own authenticity to create a collection that works in very different ways to most published work these days. Support for Hilda was obvious with a huge crowd making it clear that they wanted to get as much of her poetry as possible. A high point came as Hilda’s Dad read a considered version  of  ‘The Seal’ from her collection. Cristina Newton read from her book ‘Cry Wolf’, Dorothea played Chopin to pin drop silence, Martin Malone took us to the ‘dogging spot’ of Barbury Castle and Michael Scott read about his son. Even Leland Bardwell reprised the beauty of her previous night’s performance. But it was the night that Hilda was so very good and Asda, The Towering Inferno and Sea Slugs have never sounded so essential. Swindon Festival of Literature is a thinking festival and it was obvious tonight that people were thinking that poetry might be accessible, colourful and open for business after all.

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.