Editorial
First, do some basic limbering up exercises. Find a comfy chair and relax your body and mind. Extend your arms, parallel to the floor, and slowly let loose ripples of stress-free delight tremble along to your wrists. If you are a possessed scribe, or just a heavy smoker, you may well enjoy the thrill of once again feeling your finger tips. Now, reach for your poetry stick and shake it vigorously. No? Well, just goes to show that this issue has more poems than you can shake a stick at. More poems, in fact, than pages.
Many thanks to all of you who entered our Open Poetry Competition, which was judged by respected poets Jackie Hagan (author of Shut Your Eyes and Put Out Your Hand) and the small-case conor a (Holy Church of the Improvised Word, Per Verse host and former co-editor of TUT). With hundreds of entries, all of which were judged anonymously, their task was by no means easy. This issue kicks off with the winners - 1st Place (and winning £50), Between the Slide and Library by Matthew Stoppard of Leeds; 2nd Place (£15), Missing Cousins by Nigel Humphreys of Aberystwyth and 3rd Place (£10), Nest Near The Spire by Matthew Stoppard, still of Leeds. So, congratulations to Matthew for his double whammy and also to Nigel for his highly commended runners-up placement.
To complement these winning poems, this issue’s selection from the swollen submissions sack manages to tweak the emotions and punch the senses with experience, observation, enlightenment, wit and its long time companion, wisdom. And, as always, with a knowing nod of the poetry titfer to both page and performance. Mentioning which, Mucusart Publications is proud to announce the release of Chloe Poems’s Li’l Book O’ Manchester. Described by Neil Bell as “one of the greatest live poets you will find” and by Mike Garry as “an inspiration”, Chloe Poems is all that and more. Her fourth book rides the sound waves of Manchester and is a collection of ideas and “first draft explosions” about the people and places that have stirred creativity and shaped her muse. And it is very good indeed. Copies are available in Manchester from Cornerhouse and Basement bookshops (the latter when it reopens after its flood), or by direct mail (please see “Notices” at the back).
And finally, another big thanks to all of you who attended the TUT “Lunchtime Reading” back in February at Manchester’s Central Library (and thanks too, of course, to Libby for organising it and those poets who performed). We certainly didn’t envisage standing-room-only and apparently it was the best attended lunchtime event they had put on, which was pleasant to hear.
Now, put down that stick.
Page(s) 4
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