Gareth Owen at Shrewsbury Coffee House Poetry Night

Organiser Liz Lefroy makes us all feel welcome

Last Thursday the lovely Shrewsbury Coffee House welcomed in a large and lively audience for its monthly Poetry Night.  Renowned poet, playwright and performer Gareth Owen was first-footing it into 2013 for us.

Gareth Owen waves his specs for 'Are Yer There Moriarty?'

What it's all about for Gareth is the sound of people talking.  He set off with readings from his Collected Poems for Children, instantly entrancing us with 'Are Yer There Moriarty?', in which Uncle Arthur appalls the aunties and thrills the children by taking off his footwear and hanging his feet in 'condemned socks' where all could not avoid them.

   That was not, in any way, the full strength of  what Uncle Arthur did - after the 'sensitive ones who pressed flowers' had faded away and 'only the strong were left' they all played 'Are Yer There Moriarty?' which involved a pitched battle with a rolled up copy of The Liverpool Echo.
 By the last lines the audience had become a little overwrought and had to steady up with gulps of our host venue's stonking coffee (thank you Evie and  Simon).

Gareth singing us deadpan songs

 Gareth however did not let up the pace, and we had to cope with 'Miss Creedle teaches Creative Writing'.
'This morning,' cries Miss Creedle,
'We're all going to use our imaginations'
We all winced along, and Miss Creedle importuned her class with suggestions:
'Foetid is an exciting adjective'...

Fine coffee, bottled beer and happy January people

 Gareth rounded off his set by introducing us to his alter ego, Virgil Clenthills, and taking to song and a keyboard.  The pace never slackened and the air of theatre was only enhanced when at the last minute, an  elegant blonde lady in a magnificent red woollen scarf swept up to the front and excused her early departure in husky Italian.
"Ciao bella", smiled Virgil Clenthills, all unfazed.

*

 Poetry Night at Shrewsbury Coffee House will be back on Thursday 7 February, when you can hear Rosie Shepperd (one of the winners of 2011's Poetry Business Book & Pamphlet Competition), poet and novelist Julia Bell, Jack Edwards and, er, me.

Finding Poetry at Shrewsbury Coffee House

What a friendly place Shropshire is.  Last Thursday night I found myself on the way to Poetry Night at Shrewsbury Coffee House, gathered up in person by Deb Alma, who is the Emergency Poet.  I'd already had a warm welcome on Facebook and then another one in the Coffee House as I was introduced to a whole rhyming dictionary of various poets.

Gorgeous venue - it had lights to die for, see below, and last Thursday the school coat racks that operate as a picture rail around the room were twined with twinkly little Christmas bulbs.

Also, the coffee was good.  Really very good, which is always a good portent.  Turns out Poetry Nights at the Coffee House are a kind of well-managed open mic, where 8 poets are invited to do a spot of no more than 10 minutes each.  There's an interval to buy the wonderful coffee (or bottled beer) and then more verse.  

It was all kept flowing and warm by organiser Liz Lefroy, who is a Senior Lecturer in Social Care. She's had two poetry pamphlets published, Pretending the Weather in 2011 and The Gathering in 2012, and she won the 2011 Roy Fisher Prize.  I discovered that Deborah Alma had been a runner up; she was one of the readers on Thursday (and she was good).    

I'm looking forward to the next Poetry Night.