placeholder poetry x wire wool
jess payn suggested my name for wire wool x placeholder poetry’s 8th performance session & kat sinclair & amy Juliet brown invited me to do it, yipee! the event took place on thursday 23rd july 2026 at bookshop alehouse in southampton. it was a ticketed 30 persons capacity shindig, & sold out woo hoo. abbi mitchel and emma tanner also performed & were so so good party.
I DIDN’T REALLY KNOW WHAT TO READ FROM A SCATTERY CONGLOMERATION OF PUBLISHED & UNPUBLISHED POEMS OVER THE YEARS SO CHOSE POEMS ON THEMES OF HOTNESS, sun, summer etc., PRINTING THEM ONTO YELLOW-ISH PAPER PROVIDED BY SUSANNE GRANDVOINET then stapled with aquamarine string from west isle-of-wight coastline. it was five poems . . .
p.1 was first in lumpen #11 (2022) edited by dot spencer with guest-editor fran lock
p.2 is from poems from the house of virtue (2020) made during covid-19 lockdown
p.3 an ode to stewart home’s gutting poems in conductors of chaos (1996) &/or send ca$h (2018)
p.4 after zoë skoulding & guy debord’s wrong-map poetry or interventions
p.5 from mine & my friend emma butler-way’s work-in-progress pamphlet absolute magenta (TBC) with reference to maria sledmere’s BEGUILING midsummer song (2021)
anna grandvoinet & sam burkill were on percussion for p.4! tysm !
I’D ALSO WANTED TO READ POEMS WITH ODES TO Sarah Fletcher, Adam Biles, aim king, ee cummings, Joshua Jones, more, BUT THERE WASN’T THE TIME (EACH THREE POET HAD 15-20 MINS ON STAGE).
remember that shakespeare, IN act 4 scene 4 The winter’s tale (1611), says:
The selfsame sun that shines upon his court / Hides not his visage from our cottage, but / Looks on alike
WHICH MEANS which means
There are those who see through the lifting up of others and point it out. But the difference in status or rank, colour, gender, or creed does not matter: We’re all warmed by the same sun
⟡ ⟡ (SEE BEN CRYSTAL & DAVID CRYSTAL, Everyday Shakespeare: Lines for Life Page-A-Day Calendar 2026 (2026)) ⟡ ⟡
amygrandvoi.net 