St Georges Day (by sarah)

It's St Georges Day about a dragon and a knight
About tea and cake and a fairy tail fight
So fly high the flag of red and white
Be proud and loud but loose the racist shiite
You know Anglos were once the foreign ones - right?
As was St George killed in his persecuted flight
Remember that when you mock the immigrants plight
And that it's the mix that makes for England's might

London (by sarah)

My London, my city
Is falling through the cracks
Slipping down between glass
And chrome
Squeezed into non existence
Becoming darker
Messier
With pretention
And no protection
It's soul is dying
As all the things I knew
Crumble under callipers
And blue prints
Raised for respectability
Losing the unique
And the grotesque that was more
Becoming safe
With edges of dire
My City, My London
Soon will be no more

World Poetry Writing Month (by sarah)

Every year I help coordinate a poetry writing challenge called WoPoWriMo or World Poetry Writing Month - in Feb. On the site there are writing exercises and ways to get around being blocked, plus inspirational words from other poets.

There are also reviews and events listings.

If you are a poet or a writer of any kind, then has become a good resource - I know I helped build it but I also use it - alot!

Also for those of you who are local to Gloucestershire, I shall be organising a couple of meets through out the month, were I will bring the stickers and some extra bits along for you all 🙂

For those of you who want to read my actual poetry - then go to Turquoise Monster.

Day 17 – the Queen of the Fairy Godmothers (by sarah)

The queen of the fairy godmothers visited the climbing centre today and told off a very naughty elf who would not share the Chocs and spoke to Father Christmas about all the good children and told stories about a little mouse and enjoyed the crafts very very much.

Also my mum phoned me up to tell me I look like my great out Sylvie, this made me smile - the skirt is made out of head scarves and wraps some of which are my nan and great aunts scarves 🙂

I did discover that cutting out the poetry at the beginning is actually the wrong thing to do as it get the children settled, it was a fab day 🙂

(phone photos)

The Warrior Butterfly (by sarah)

Tonight (21 st Nov 2014) I am going to be taking part in a Quiet Compare event at The Strand in Cheltenham. It is medical themed poetry so I am taking along a poem I have only ever performed twice before and never to a live audience that is sitting there just for poetry.

The poem is The Warrior Butterfly and chronicles the issues I had around the pregnancy and birth of Jean, I could write a lot on the imagery and what the poem means to me but I shall not. The two previous performances were: 1) Cheltenham Community Radio for one of their shows and 2) for the On Form Sculpture exhibition in Oxford a few years ago where I stood on an Earth work (made for the garden not an ancient burial site) that was covered in flowers and called it to the sky and the arty loving people who happened to be wandering about at the time.

It is a long and in many ways personally indulgent poem for me, not my normal but as such it is often not the right sort of thing to read at events and the actual reading of it is hard for me.

I hope local peeps might like to come out tonight to listen - it isn't just me performing a 4 and a half minute poem, there are lots of others performing too, some of whom you might even have heard of!

Anyway I'd better give it the read through a couple of times before tonight.

Here's the event details for those of you not on Facebook it is 7:30 at The Strand in Cheltenham with a £1/£2 suggested donation on the door.