Spoken word poetry.

In 2017 I applied for the Roundhouse Poetry Collective. A few years prior to that I lost someone very dear to me and writing seemed to be the only feasible way to talk about him. Conversations with friends were difficult to navigate without awkward pauses because grief lurked in the silences. It still does sometimes, but by writing his story and reciting it to strangers became a sort of therapy for me. 

To be able to write about something other than depression, and consequently death, I knew I needed to learn a lot and surround myself with other people trying to do the same. So I recorded myself reading the one and only poem I had ever written, sent it off in an email, and somehow bagged a place in the collective with a group of extraordinary poets. We met every weekend at the Roundhouse with Bridget Minamore as our mentor, free-writing and sharing, free-writing and sharing. Getting over the well known nausea of that question ‘Who’s next?'

That first poem is still the one I’m most proud of to date. But since then I’ve managed to write a series of other  poems that aren’t all about death, but do deal with some sense of loss. Something I’m more at peace with now, I suppose. 

Feature Poet for Speak Easy poetry night at Phoenix Artist Club

Citadel Festival, performing with Roundhouse Poetry Collective