GB Poets

Sarah Butler has blogged last night’s GB Poets event at the Poetry Library (part of Poetry International). I was reading with Bogdan Tiganov, Valeria Melchioretto and Sascha Akhtar. The stage, I mentioned, was the third most unusual I’ve read on (after the window of an old curiosity shop, and a pub toilet) – a multicoloured, tiered affair on five steps. Part of an installation by Sintra Tantra who also designed the backdrop, inspired by the artwork for the Festival of Britain in the ’50s and emblazoned with ‘GB’. A more suitable 2012 logo, I suggested. I read ‘this is yogic’, excerpts from ‘The Terrors’ and a shortened version of ‘How To Build A City’. The latter captured by Sarah’s notes:

A city full of scars. Scuff marks. Flat pack, dotted lines, screwdriver, spirit level. A station pointing east. Space portal. Words easing in between bricks, through gaps thin as credit cards. Kerb. Vista. A trio of estate agents battling names. Or a body perhaps: blood, arteries, bones.