Purely Poetry, Mar '14

Great to see another full room last night for Purely Poetry, with lots of people itching to get their names in the hat to read. In no particular order, a big thank you to:

Andy Ward, Mark Cooper, Michael Bell, Tom French, Jenny Cleland, Lesley Johnston, John Mc Guckin, Rory Jones, Tim Knight, Geraldine O'Kane, David Braziel, David Smylie, Siobhan McKinney, Frank F T Twaddle, Stephen Gharbhoui, Barry Simpson, David Davies, Mel Bradley, Lesley Martin, Helen Harrison and Mimi O'Halloran.

Twenty-one readers packed into one night is a lot of poetry! How wonderful to see so many people coming together to share in their love of  words and writing; and an extended thank you to all that attend that simply just want to listen and enjoy, poets and poetry lovers alike. And of course, praise and respect to the wonderful staff at the Crescent Arts Centre for once again allowing us to take over the cafe.

Last night we had poems in Spanish and German, and favourites read out from Tony Harrison, Adrian Mitchell, Mary Oliver, Billy Collins and more. A big part of open mics and having a community for poetry is in hearing and discovering new poets, that people will be inspired to go off and find out more for themselves. We certainly hope that more people will throw in the odd favourite here and there, amidst the array of local talent regularly on show.

We’ll have some photos up soon courtesy of Andy Ward. If you attended, let us know: Facebook us, or hashtag #poetryni or #purelypoetry. Our next night is on Friday 4th April, see you then!