They did last night! And what a wonderful crowd too. From a lad too young to drink, to a grandmother of 83, Runaway Girl was perfectly packed with an excited, yet laid back crowd of sound people.
Lots of new faces and readers – some doing it for the first time, some established saga louts. A [...]

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/6095123/view]
The sun-stroked sphincter
of individuality exploded,
showering shards of similitude
over the airwaves and thus
we have the joy of suburban
man and woman gorging on
cushy corporate cocks like
smitten flocks of creeps
who sit on the hands of clocks
and rotate with cogs around
the steeple of a few people.

I’m dreaming of a tight Christmas
With every Woolworth’s card I write
May your season’s spending be slight-
And may all your Christmases be tight.
Forget about Santa Claus
Spend Christmas with your in-laws
You turn up in your Merc -
And watch them do the work
Cos they’ll buy all the shopping
For they know that you’ll be stopping
Till New Year at least
(You’re [...]

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/6095013/view]
The morning after you showed me your holiday snaps – what West Coast bliss!
Prompting the Nordic bite of our first kiss:
I woke to find the snow had laid.
Sheffield was all Vancouver
Shed of its landlocked chrysalis.

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/6094823/view]
What needs to happen?
What will it take?
Does every last river on the face of the earth have to bleed itself dry?
Do we have to turn a faucet for a glass of drinking water only to get a barrel of oil?
Do all the trees in the jungles on all the continents have to turn to newspapers?
Do [...]

[odeo='http://odeo.com/audio/6094423/view]
There was a day when
Mum and dad got paid
cash
For the ash they signed away
Bought the beatles white album
And something to play it on
Living nextdoor to the
Crematorium, they must have
Bought a few of them.

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/6095043/view]
I’m sorry that I’m sorry
But I wish to make things better
And this is the way I know how
I’m sorry that I’m sorry
That I don’t know why I’m sorry
But it seems right to say it anyhow
I’m sorry that I’m sorry
That I don’t know why I’m sorry
And I’m sorry that you don’t know why I’m too.
The worse [...]

EJ reads his own work:
[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/6094733/view]

One traditional, the other Western:
[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/6094893/view]
Inch left in the glass
not wanting this ‘just one pint’
to come to an end.

Sally reads her poem ‘The Gift’.
[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/6095233/view]
He gave her a Hornby train set
with a black chuffing engine
and a neat little tender
and two green carriages
chuffing round and round
round and round
its own little world
of signal boxes and gay stations

Sally reads her poem about a road in Sheffield.
[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/6095163/view]
Out on the Houndkirk Road
with a creaky ankle and rusty joints
and goosey snow deep enough to dream in.
From here, pale sun on city towers
sparks the edge of a white corporate world
where the reds might come in the night

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/6094633/view]

And afterwards
They lay in each other’s arms
Eyes glistening in the dark
Still warm
Still close
Smiling

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/6094973/view]
For three salad years we lived in a caravan, love.
Everything in miniature, while we grew tall as oaks.
We wrapped ourselves in carnations and ate black beans
From tins. Mouth to hand, we lit fires in the empties.
On Saturdays, I loved to let the green light
Of morning in, through the flannel squares
We used for blinds. With princely [...]

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/6095073/view]
I can’t be charmed
by a smile that cries wolf
or sympathise
with an act of
insincere kindness.
I’m rarely filled
with equal measures
of pity and loathing
and no, I don’t want
to buy you a drink.
Thanks though.

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/6094993/view]
I’m rather annoyed with Stanley actually. Look what he’s done to me! I look quite ridiculous! I couldn’t stand out more if I tried. So obvious! Almost hideous, I am. Sticking up, awkwardly into the grey sky.
Of course Stanley’s not completely to blame. He’d say that he’s shown what he’s seen – he’d say that [...]