"Mister Myth" by Inconsequential

"Passing the Cross" by Lisa Dabrowski

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Russell CJ Duffy reads 'Dots on the Page'

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Russell C.J Duffy is a writer and blogger. Known for his ribald stories of life in a fictional Wessex village - "The Village Tales of Fekenham Swarberry. He is also the editor of spoken word poetry site 'Something For The Weekend, Sir?' When not sleeping he is writing.

Rap by Antarma Djembe

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Bringing Hearts together with the voice and the drum  Antarma has played sounds at many different location at the royal albert hall with alex boye opening for olivia newton john, the sanderson hotel  @ The British Film Institute BFI on south bank waterloo as part of Refugee in film festival10/11/2012
At a Private Birthday party in Stoke Newisngton 4/11/2012, A featured Artist FREEDOM BEATS @D’Gaf Stratford 03/11/2012 , performed at Energize London @ The Chelsea Theatre 02/11/2012, featured Artist At Softly Spoken Word @ The Queens Head in Picadilly Circus 01/11/2012  and on the same day Performed live on air and was interviewed on live Radio station on the Bar Etica show at extramusical.com also freestyling with the dub lion dub selecta live on air…on that same morning Antarma played at the C.a.f.e in coldharbour lane brixton for a musical workshop, on the 31/10/2012 he performed the Harrow Arts Centre as part of the Refugee Youth Halloween Celebration, on the 28/10/2012He performed at an African Heritage day for black history month at the Harry Caddick Community Centre in Camberwell.

David Caddy reads 'Bloody Shard Gate'

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David Caddy is a writer, critic, literary sociologist and historian. He lives and works in rural Dorset from where he edits international literary journal Tears in the Fence. He was co-author of London: City of Words (2006) with Westrow Cooper. Man in Black is his eighth book of poetry and follows the highly regarded collection The Willy Poems. David is a long-standing promoter of poetry. He founded the East Street Poets in 1985, which he ran until 2001, and directed the Wessex Poetry Festival from 1995 until 2002. David currently blogs/podcasts at So He We Are; a collection of his online essays is forthcoming in print. He is a regular contributor to The Use of English.

Russell H Ragsdale reads 'Dart'

This man, this good friend of mine is also a damn fine poet. His books are available on Kindle, 'Book of Aliases' - 'Dragon Scales and Fireflies' and really deserve to be widely read. Here he is reading 'Dart.' Enjoy...

Russell was born in California, moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1964. He attended the University of Arizona where he was a student poet. After the university he entered the food industry, first working as a retail meat cutter and later as a chef. Moved to Almaty, Kazakhstan in 1992 to work as an executive chef for a hotel. He started teaching English in 2003. Currently he is a full time Lecturer in the Language Center of the Kazakhstan Institute of Economics, Management and Strategic Research.

The Rise, Demise and Imminent Rebirth of Modern Poetry

Why is it that the swing away from poetry to prose has been so severe? Is poetry, once the stuff or romance and potency, now seen as something marginal? Once a poet was feted in much the same way as a Rock star. Now if you say you are a poet the likelihood is that you might get some sideways glances or a patronizing smile. 'Of course you are dear, after all, isn't everyone?'

Prose and poetry are cousins. One can exist with the other without there being either conflict or competition. Obviously one offers a different experience from the other but that is no bad thing, is it? So why then does prose still sell in bucket loads whilst poetry sells in dribbles? So what is it that pulls an audience toward prose stories more than poetry? Do we blame J.K. Rowling for igniting a young audience's passion for prose and in doing so ignoring poetry? I think not. Something the sadly missed Maya Angelou said gives me both hope and insight. She said that Rap Music kept her optimistic about the future of poetry.

“Years ago I did a movie called Poetic Justice, and there was a young man the first day who cursed so, I couldn’t believe it. I walked around, behind him, tried to ignore him. But the second day, he and another young man, [a] black man, ran to each other and were about to fight. Hundreds of extras started to run away. But one black man walked up to the two young men, and I walked up, and I took one by his shoulder. I said, ‘Let me speak to you.’ … He finally calmed down, and I said, ‘Do you know how much you are needed? Do you know what you mean to us? Do you know that hundreds of years of struggle have been for you? Please baby, take a minute.’ … I put my arm around him. He started to weep. The tears came down. That was Tupac Shakur. I took him, I walked him down into a little gully and kept his back to the people so they wouldn’t see him, and I used my hands to dry his cheeks.”

That statement and that quote fill me with an excitement not dissimilar to hearing 'Revolver' for the first time or, same year different occasion, of  England winning the world cup. There is not only life in the old beast but also interest. Fact is Rap sells major style so with that thought in mind, and seeing that musical genre owes a huge debt of thanks to poetry, why can't that fluid, magical older form of verse do the same?

It of course can but how?

The spoken word is key. Hearing poetry spoken, 'Under Milkwood' being a perfect example or indeed hearing Maya Angelou, or any poet for that matter, read out loud their work is an exhilarating experience.

Poetry's link to song goes back centuries.They were born of the same mother. They share history. However, you cannot read songs, well you can if you read the lyric but you either need to sing them or hear them to fully get the impact of the piece.. Same with poetry. Yes, you can read it but hearing it spoken helps. It gives that extra oomph that I believe will fire-up the hearts of not only the young, although bringing more youth on board would be good, but everyone.

Of course there is another medium employed nowadays with pop music and that is the video. Again this format adds to another by visually assisting delivery. Seeing is believing. Hearing is perceiving. Together the two stamp an authority by virtue of demanding attention that a book of verse doesn't always achieve.

Poetry responds to a basic human needs. It can be cathartic when read or heard. It literally has the ability to change lives. What it needs now is to accept other ways of presenting itself, of getting back to roots while dallying a while with modern means to get those poems heard. 

Something For The Weekend, Sir?  makes no false promises. It can only be a vehicle for assisting an already beautiful art form but in so doing the 'voice' of poetry embraces a modern means as it delivers an exciting message.

Very soon poets will be reading the spoken word here. Enjoy.

Collage

Coll-age - from the Greek , meaning a collection of old tat glued to an animal skin - or is it French? Anyway, it's donkey's years old and steeped in history, wine, fermented goats curds and a fine musty odour similar to a Yak's chafing belt.

It all began really some years later when artists ran out of paint during the great Paint Drought of 1876 and they had to do something else or go totally mad sniffing all that turpentine and drinking absinthe. One of the first collage artists was Gordon Le Bennet who lived in Paree, somewhere in French France. He was often found sticking post-it notes to Toulouse Lautrec's posters telling him where the next knees up was going to be and to make them more interesting added a cut out from the Exchange & Mart - usually of a shed or some gum boots - applied with his own spit.

Years later a small group formed calling themselves the Extortionists , or was it the Contortionists? Anyway, they used more suffixicated methods using real animal glue and a large brush made from a badgers eyebrow. The leader was George Brark and he became famous for his colluges - as he later called them- of still lives fashioned from the empty packets of biscuits and sweets he mainly lived on. Soon many others were drawn into his collugey web - people like Pricasso, Max Unst and Salvador "Where's Me Bike" Doolally.

Coming right up to date now we have the Kollage Kids who cut out all manner of old junk to amuse and mystify the interweb world. They have a blog which you can find HERE called The Kollage Kit. Go and have a look - I think you'll be amazed!


...aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOOoL.

Russell CJ Duffy reads - Men (take Two)

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Roger Steven's reads..."There's more to you than meets the eye."

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Roger Stevens is a popular children's author, poet and performer who visits schools, libraries, festivals and museums all over the UK. Roger's poems for children appear in more than 200 anthologies. His most recent book is an anthology for A&C Black - Let's Recycle Grandad. Other books include The Monster That Ate The Universe and Why Otters Don't Wear Socks (Macmillan), On My Way to School I Saw a Dinosaur (Hands-Up Press) - poems for younger children, The Secret Life of Pants (A and C Black) and a verse-novel for teenagers, The Journal of Danny Chaucer (Poet) (Orion) - which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. A CD of Roger reading the best of his poems is available from Macmillan Digital Audio. he co-authored Able Writers in Your School (Brilliant Publications) with Brian Moses