Last night I was lucky enough to attend a great evening of performance poetry at The Java Bean cafe in Tunbridge Wells, for the launch of the new pamphlet by Louisa Campbell, a member of my local writing group.
Supported by published poets Ira Lightman and John McCullough, both of whom gave great performances, Louisa’s was easily the standout set for me.
A natural performer, she read a selection of poems from The Happy Bus, Published by Picaroon Poetry, which is a collection she describes as ‘charting the journey through anxiety and depression and on to peace and joy’.
This is not to suggest that her poetry is all dark, for that is certainly not the case. Each one bristles with hope and determination, and frequently humour – for Louisa does humour very well – and had the audience frequently chortling (we chortle a lot in Tunbridge Wells. We also chunter about stuff, but there was none of that last night).
And, let’s face it, how often do you get to see a poet declaiming a couple of their poems in a wolf onesie?, or getting an audience in Tunbridge Wells to yell out a chorus of ‘Bugger!’?
Below, an extract from the pamphlet:
To get your copy, click on either of the links below.
Mick Canning 
Mick, I lived for a few months in Tunbridge Wells and I’m equally amused that an audience there could be so positive to these events!!😀😃 Wish I’d been there…you give a real sense of the evening and Louise’s book looks wonderful, full of warmth and insight.
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Thanks, Annika. How on earth did you manage to escape? All inhabitants are micro-chipped these days and they carry out checks at every border crossing.
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😀😀 even my close friends managed to move away after living there for many years…I was amazed!! Seriously, it is a lovely place to visit and I never tired of the Pantiles!
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I’ve certainly lived in worse places, and there’s quite a decent and thriving creative community.
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What an amazing experience 🙂
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It was a great evening!
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Nice😊
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Hi, Mick, I have to confess that my first thought on reading the phrase “great evening of performance poetry” was that it sounded like a great oxymoron. But after reading the full post and the lovely poem by Louisa Campbell, I am a believer that there can, indeed, be such a thing as a great evening of performance poetry. Live and learn. Thanks for sharing.
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Maybe you had to be there, Donna, but it was a super evening. Thank you.
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