Life, music and mathematics!

What a great evening! The weather tried its hardest to keep everyone home but a fabulous crowd, along with some amazingly talented newcomers, turned out to hear our open mic poets and the wonderful poetry of this month’s guest poet, Dorian Nightingale.

Dorian read from his new pamphlet Songs from Last Imaginations published by Flight of the Dragonfly Press and opened with an ensemble of 7 poems curated as if a single piece of music, like a symphony of words. The musicality shone through with connections in phonic and tonal overtures giving a beautifully atmospheric and memorable performance. (a video of this can be found over at our YouTube site). From the suffocating onomatopoeic lines of Airlock 'gasping , rasping' and the pensiveness of  Day at the Beach ‘Never holding my nerve, never turning the tide.’ to the amazingly startling Narcissus, ‘look how you undertook to hook’ .  Dorian covered a gamut of topics from mathematics in Reckoner to the tender and surprising moments at the end of life in Final Cut and this gave his set a very human resonance. All of human experience was there. The rhythm and beat of rhyming words gave a force of meaning and symbolism as erudite as it was eloquent, with a momentum that carried the poems forward, coating our listeners in the sheer force of the sentiment behind the pieces. A truly remarkable set, from a poet who has far to go and much to share.

Dorian's book can be purchased here: Songs from Last Imaginations

The evening had other treasures too: Peter Wellby in Jack’s First Poem, told of his grandson, now a strapping man, but at his early birth, spent time in intensive care and was tiny enough to fit in the palm of his father’s hand. ‘like beams of light , we focus all our prayers on you’. David A his energy filled finance poem The Promise, ‘Cash is king and ready to use.’ Joe read his sonnet Travel without Travel that sung of the deliciousness of Polish bread. Joe also gave us a singalong folk song Hard Times of Old England. Charles A gave us a little depth with an ‘overture of dreams’ in What If and a little light heartedness in Washing Up Liquid , a tale of a beloved garden gnome. Keith read his poem ‘Nell’ which told of the Samuel Pepy’s records of the pleasures a 1670 Nell Gwyn gave for a sixpence or a shilling! Richard from Seahaven poets gave a touching and terrifying account of the maltreatment in mental institutes like ‘Bedlam’ and the questions that arise from that: ‘how could that ever have been legal?’ , ‘just wonder how we treat them, leave them.’ Nicki gave a well participated interactive poem on film stars and a reflection on how long and lasting January is in Still January. Nicki told us about the work she does with JUST FRIENDS, a charity who support those who live alone and may ‘go weeks without hearing another human voice’ in her poem, finishing positively ‘with time all things will heal’.  Mr John reversed Ken Dodd’s Happiness with Emptiness and got us recalling crowded floors with Dance. Adam painted a creative scene with ‘come watch the scoundrels plunder. this is a thing of wonder’ in Dirty In Their Abandonment. Abir gave a political powerhouse of a poem on equality ‘built on black backs creates a chaos you can’t contain’. Alex a first timer at Poetry Café read A Friend In Need ,’a scream so quiet it it’s barely audible’ and read about those born in the ‘Noughties’ ‘now in their forties! Alex also gave a little nostalgia with her poem, Back in the Day. Sean another first timer who is shortly off to Ireland, but did promise that he’d revisit if he’s back in town, read An Irishman’s Dream, ‘already planning the escape to the land that is mine’. Jerome, from heart, impressively and passionately read Born Again, Again ‘I’ve been trying to find Jesus, paint a crooked past.’ Rob Hill from Versify Podcast finished our evening, picking up on the reflection of those who might be alone To The Lonely and Kind, ‘by day you are the small still voice of calm. Then comes the night.’ and Royal Jelly ‘rehearsing things she should have said – left unspoken, silent, dead’.     

As shown by what’s stated above, we were given a stunning evening of poetry, despite the awful weather and the natural inclination to hibernate when it’s cold and dark!     

Next month we have ‘Sarah the Poet’ from Brighton. She will be bringing her brilliance to the cellar of the Frontier Bar! Don’t miss it, it’s going to be brilliant!