Purely Poetry: May '14

What a night at Purely Poetry. Another jam-packed room, lots of readers and many first timers blowing the crowd away. Sometimes you don't realise when you're up at the mic reading, but many times throughout the time, I was amazed at how rapt and attentive the crowd where. You could feel the silence: the eager minds, held breaths, bodies tense... and then the wondrous release of applause and cheers afterwards. It's life-affirming, and it might just be my new drug...

As I mentioned on the night, we just book the place and throw the doors open; it's the great audience and the multitude of poets willing to read that really make the night. I love the range of voices, the different styles, shooting from dark to light, heartfelt to whimsical across the night. Well done people, and thank you!

Here's the list of readers who helped make the night a success:
Lara Sunday, Andy Ward, Diane Morrison, Richard Brennan, Geraldine O'Kane, Philip Robinson, MK Maguire, Jim McClean, David Smylie, Orlaith Hendron, Willetta Fleming, Tom Oyster, Lesley Johnston, Michael O'Neill, Katy Waller, Anthony Ferguson, Tom French, Frank F T Twaddle, Jason Ashford, Lynda Tavakoli, Yvonne Boyle, David Braziel and David Mallaghan.

We are back on the 13th June (the SECOND Friday of the month, rather than the first) for the Belfast Book Festival, holding our annual poetry slam event there. More details on that soon...

Cheers, Colin.