I’m writing this on a Sunday morning, on the way to facilitate a Lego party, luckily not too far away as it’s only an hour long. I’m looking forward to spending the afternoon at the park, but with my laptop as I’m still not ready to submit my draft essay. I’m thinking to also bring some art materials to use during a break.
This week has been full of ups and downs. I hosted a SOLD OUT She Grrrowls at the Southbank Centre’s National Poetry Library, which is the first sold out show since the pandemic, having not been able to go back to The Poetry Cafe, not having heard anything directly from them about going back, and now being priced out of the hire fees.
The day after the event, I got the rejection for the ACE funding application I had submitted for the fourth time. Once I’ve submitted the draft of my Final Clinical Report, I’m going to amend and submit for the fifth time. I’ve even tried to find out many times I would need to submit probability-wise and it could be between 5-10 times, which could take over another year. However, I’m at the point where I have tried so many times, that I’ve gone too far to just stop trying. It was apt that the theme for the event just gone was about resilience.
I’d also met Troy Cabida, who works at the library, the previous week, at Catford Library, reading his work alongside Sanah Ahsan, who I’d met for the third time but it seemed like the first time that we might not both forget that we met. I do wonder how bigger names in poetry deal with meeting so many different people!
Things are otherwise ticking along, and I started with a new student on Fridays. I’ll be tutoring history, which isn’t my specialty, but I’ve found some good resources, my student having chosen to look at Elizabethan England.
The CPIFF festival brought another coincidence as one of the films ‘Root Note’ was made by Guy Larsen, who film a poem for me back in 2013, when I won the Poetry Rivals slam. It was actually one of my favourites, so I should get in touch to say.
Watching: The Simpsons, Race Across the World, Apple Cider Vinegar
Reading: The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens, Attacks on Linking Revisited, The Interpersonal World of The Infant by Daniel N. Stern, None of the Above by Travis Alabanza (audiobook), Qur’an (audiobook)
Podcasts: What Now? by Trevor Noah, Multiamory: Rethinking Modern Relationships
Music: Cheekface, Chappell Roan
Again, if you’re able to share or donate to my crowdfund as I train to become an Art Psychotherapist, or buy some books, please do!
Poet on page and stage. Creator of She Grrrowls. Facilitator. Writer. 