two more evenings in London

Tuesday night’s Shearsman reading presented Philip Kuhn, reading from at maimonodes table, a book of interwoven texts taking off from the Talmud, and Robert Sheppard reading from Warrant Error, a ferocious set of sonnets. This was political poetry for the age when we’re often unsure of what’s onscreen and what’s off. The previous reading of Sheppard’s that I attended featured work from his long-running sequence 'Twentieth Century Blues'. Since then The Complete Twentieth Century Blues has become available from Salt. It’s a substantial and impressive volume.

Thursday’s Crossing the Line reading was a benefit for Paul Sutton who spent Christmas in the slammer, Belmarsh Maximum Security in fact, for some mild misdemeanour (should this establishment be renamed ‘Jack Straw’s Castle’?). Here’s Sean Bonney reading with accompaniment to an attentive Jeff Hilson, followed by Tim Atkins channelling Petrarch. I had a bash at this one too.