What an evening! Soo Doe's Guest Poet slot dripped with poignance and power.
With poetry that shone a light on the endurance needed and hostility encountered by anyone who finds themselves outside the narrow confines of 'ordinary'. It was both a pleasure and a joy to listen to Soo Doe's work.
'Sit Down and Shut Up' opened the slot with the nuclear family has to go and 'The Wild Country' lifted the familiar veil on the complexity of feelings when family and friends come to stay. A touching memory in 'Flower' and the pure strength in every word of 'Running the Gauntlet': the words, "I walk the three miles into town and back again," just hung heavy with the weight of remaining who you are in the face of those who'd force you not to be.
'The Vac Pac Blues' gave us an oasis of creatures expecting the worst but hoping for the best. The set ended with a homely nod to Helensburgh, Soo Doe's hometown with 'Home from the Range'.
Without doubt, it was a soulful and unflinching set of poetry that sought to share its tender grittiness with its audience. Genuine, heartfelt and glorious.
Our Open-mic poets were in fine fettle with Mr John's Challenge of 'The Elephant in the Room' with plenty of new government tips , hopes and prophesies!
Two new poets shared their lines that were truly polished pieces with Steve talking all things artistic from Caravaggio to Titian and Jules, who was triumphantly 'Giving Myself Permission' giving the first half of the evening an erudite and affirmative vibe.
Alvin graced us with his vision of a thousand years into the future and Linda brought us 'Bubbles'. Mark D gave us a beautiful 'Saudade' a Portuguese longing and Andy B gave us 'A Cafeteria named Desire' with teen angst and repression oozing from each syllable.
Di gave us a cautionary tale of rubbish concealing petrified remains. Mike L gave us a lachrymose villanelle and we ended the evening with Keith W's Schrodinger's cat and a moonlight sonata for elephants.
There is, quite frankly, no end to the variety and to the enormous talent we hear each month!
As always, our great thanks go to our guest poet and our open mic poets.
We hope to see you again in September but please do enter our competition before the end of August, in good time for our National Poetry Day showcase.
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