Fresh off the press. Catch my live recording on YouTube.
High on Tulsa: For John Moreland
If you haven’t come across John Moreland before, I strongly advise you to look him up. Here he is playing “Hang Me in the Tulsa County Stars” – one of my favourites. Cracks me up every time.
This poem is about a memory I have of seeing him play live at the Cambridge Folk Festival on a particularly hot day the the summer of 2018. I’d made a deal with my partner that we’d watch half of John’s set then go to see Patti Smith but I’m afraid I just couldn’t tear myself away and Patti had to make do without me. I don’t suppose she was too upset about that.
It’s been a while since I last posted a poem. That’s not because I’ve stopped writing poetry. Far from it. I’ve been writing quite a few, in between forging my first novel and some short stories. I suppose I’m just being a little bit more selective about the ones I post these days, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I’m trying to pull together a collection of themed poetry that hasn’t had too much previous exposure. I hope to publish them in the near future. Second, I take more time in crafting a poem these days so I’m often reluctant to let them out into the world too early. That said, I only wrote this poem in this April’s NaPoWriMo and have been diligently working on it since then. So much so, there’s little of the original version left.
I’m reasonably happy with it now – a record for me: I’m still tinkering with some of the poems I posted on this site a few years ago. Anyway, I’ve recorded this one for an online event that would normally be held in a little pub in the Black Country (that’s the West Midlands of England for those of you who aren’t so familiar with British regions). The event is called Yes We Cant and this month’s event will take place on Sunday 7th June here.
My performance will be featured in the open mic sections, along with several other excellent local poets and storytellers.
Alternatively you can check it out on YouTube. It’s my first ever recording and clearly I have a lot to learn but I’d be really interested to know what you think of it. So please, have a look and a listen, and drop me a comment or message me. It would be great to hear from you.
