A Night At The Astoria

Taken from http://www.urban75.org

By concrete honey-combed Centre Point
Briskly paced towards Soho
Passing illuminated tooting taxis
Striding down the Charing Cross Road
To join a queue of  alternatives
Outside the stuccoed dome crowned bay
Under the fretted signage board
Spelling the name of the band who’ll play
Tonight, at the Astoria

Earnest in Camden High Street fashion
Invested Kensington Market attire
Sticky carpet hugged our tread
Glued our shoes to a concert flyer
And another, and another
Patchouli on the dance floor
In the mosh pit, down the front
Cramming narrow stairs crowding corridors
Tonight, at the Astoria

Black buckled winkle pickers
DMs, Converse, cowboy boots
Only the walls knew what we were
Dressed in t shirts ripped and loose
Painted leather on our backs
Tassled skirts and Celtic gods
My bloke’s hat, flour dusted like Carl’s
A new militia danced in clogs
Tonight, at the Astoria

No more the legend, the dirty old friend
No more thoughts of getting out alive
The heavy handed security ejection
Of devising a way to get back inside
Romance could not save you
The Mayor would not waiver or
Heed the petition that meant you were loved
But you made us legends, you were our saviour
Those nights, at the Astoria

 

 

If you have a mo…

Just have a gander at these blogs by the people who shared links to their sites in my last NaPoWriMo post.

They are all very different from one another and I have really enjoyed exploring their material so please check them out.

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you:

Kruti Joshi’s Life and My Musings  

Colleen Knight

Sean Tully

Luke Otley

If you would also like to share links to your poetry, please feel free to leave a link in the comments boxes below

I am off to finish a new poem that the kids have prevented me from doing for the last week – wish me luck, a clear head and peace for the next 2 hours….. ahhhhh…

Anna x

Share links to your NaPoWriMo poems

Yesterday’s post was about the rather awful and glammed up photo of me that I was prepared to share as a guest on Carol Forrester’s blog Writing and Works for NaPoWriMo.  Far too glam for me , but hey, a little bit of powder, a little bit of paint…..

I really enjoy reading the blogs of other poets to checkout their styles and subject matter and thought it might be good fun to invite you all to share links to your blogs or the poems you have written for National Poetry Writing Month this April by popping them into the comments box below.

I will Tweet and Facebook the link to this page once comments and links have been entered.  You can always check back to this post to see who has offered to share!

Have a great day and I look forward to meeting some new blogs soon.

Anna x

NaPoWriMo

If you fancy seeing a picture of me looking something like one of The Real Housewives of Beverley Hills then head over to the fabulous blog Writing and Works run by Carol Forrester.

I don’t ever look like this in normal everyday life but when Carol was looking for guests to write a post in celebration of NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month), she asked for a photo of me to go with the post I’d written.

Now, I never take selfies, I just can’t get that photogenic angle and I rarely get a photo of me without the kids managing to ambush the shot with a “photo bomb” so I recently agreed to a studio session on a girls day out.  The look I wanted to achieve?  Rock and roll of course!  Messy!  Grungy!  My eyes lined with black flicks!  But the artist decided glam was the way forward and I came out looking like Alexis Carrington.  Grrr!

Anyway – please checkout Writing and Works and my post too which discusses inspiration and “what is the point of poetry?”

Enjoy the sunshine!

Anna xx

 

 

Brit Mums Poetry & Prose Round Up – April

Just leading you to visit the April issue of Brit Mums Poetry Round Up to take a look at all the wonderful poetry that mums somehow, have the time, to squeeze into their days.  I was surprised to see one of mine in there again – my poem for Mother’s Day – We Are The Mums, has made an appearance in the Round Up too!  Cool!

So, grab a cuppa and take a gander into the hearts of mothers and talented ladies.  There’s more to them than apron strings.

 

 

Share links for World Poetry Day

It’s been lovely to discover more blogs dedicated to music and/or poetry recently.  When ever a blogger likes a post I have written I do try to checkout their blog too.  We all do that, right?

What I would really like to do to celebrate World Poetry Day is to keep the introductions going a bit more and would like to invite you all to share this post and include a link to your own blog in the comments box below.  Keep sharing and we will all discover a whole new gathering of writers!  Exciting!

I will Tweet and Facebook the link to this page once comments and links have been entered.

Have a great day and I look forward to meeting some new blogs soon.

Long live the Fans!

Anna x

Brit Mums Poetry & Prose Round Up

Brit Mums are a collective of lifestyle bloggers in Britain.  I recently became connected with their poetry and writing representative Maddy Bennett who runs a fantastic blog and writing forum called Writing Bubble.

Maddy recently called for poems associated with love to appear in the Brit Mums February Round Up and I am honored to find that I am one of those poets who have been showcased in the Round Up.  It means a great deal to me to find a connection with so many other poets, some of whom are mothers,  as well as having a poem shared.  In my case it was one of my own favourites, Backseat Driver.

Please do checkout the link to the Round Up and have a gander at a wealth of talented lady writers who really do write from the heart.

Anna x

 

Joolz

I found this book at the weekend,  “Mad, Bad and Dangerous To Know” by cult performance poet and writer, Joolz.  I was prompted to hunt around my storage boxes for this when I recently heard her being interviewed for Stand Up And Spit by poet and radio presenter Laurie Bolger.

I’ve seen Joolz perform, watching in awe of her striking stage presence; a lioness, High Priestess, a woman.

Although her work depicted life far from the world I knew back then, set against the harsh backdrop of poorer towns in North England, whereas I was growing up in the comfortable Home Counties, I was transfixed by her controlled delivery and deeply impressed by the raw and hard hitting stories in her poetry.  So impressed was I back then, that on the day of the school Variety Show I took it into my head to stand up on stage, in front of every pupil and teacher, and perform two of Joolz’ poems that I knew off by heart, dressed in a red ball gown in honour of my favourite poet (well, I wasn’t allowed to dye my hair red).  Joolz’ poetry is written in the style that I connect with best, plain speaking, no nonsense, no frills.  So, I expected that everyone in the hall would understand every word of every line. I knew I was taking a big risk, and when I had finished reading you should have seen the faces before me, jaws were almost dropping and for a moment, I wondered if I had launched myself into the chasm of social suicide. However, the applause that followed was uncertain but it grew and grew until I had finally trotted off into the wings.

Joolz now writes under the name, Joolz Denby and has published books of fiction and further poetry which she takes all over the world.  “Mad, Bad and Dangerous To Know” is still available via the New Model Army band website.  My copy will stay firmly on my bookshelf.

The Will To Gig on Soundcloud

Just Arrived – The Will To Gig

My first printed anthology (or annathology!) of poetry has arrived.  I thought I would share this little sneaky peak with you guys as I am so please with the outcome.  Don’t they look brilliant?