Author: GBJM_57

Community Poem February 2025

Now you listen here, biscuit boy!
Compassion is the basis of morality.
I am a reusable cup, please return me

Floating through the dimensionless afternoon
I need to sit down. Where do the fish go at suppertime?

He was the bargain bin otter at the sperm bank,
Then his mouth dropped open and a vole popped out. 
Who is Alan, what is he for? 

Wonderings through witchcraft and struggles to remain men.
Sunsets and moonshine and hobbled, Robbled shoes. 
I left my keys on the kitchen table…

Bazinga-zinga Bazinga-zeng 
Every middle name is a character in Thomas the Tank Engine
Patchwork pattern, puzzle quilted

Life is too short to wait 10 minutes for a gin + tonic
0110001100 When you wave at the computer, your soul waves back.
There is an aging tortoise using face cream?

A line behind a line behind a line behind a line, how many words make up a line, how many letters behind one another lined up together line a line of loves.
The vivacious cat and a suitably startled rat.

Who is Alan, what is he for? 

Satellite of Love Presents: Poetry Film Night

Tuesday 20th May 2025

On board the John Sebastian Lightship

Book tickets

May’s Poetry Film Club will feature Sarah Tremlett (MPhil, FRSA, leading, British, prize-winning poetry filmmaker, poet, artist and theorist, and editor of Liberated Words online) reading from and talking about her new publication, and showing a poetry film from it.

Her commissioned poetic memoir Horse-Woman (Basic Bruegel Editions, Canada, April, 2025) relates to a traumatic period earlier in her life when she was working as a fashion model whilst painting and writing in a bohemian London bedsit. As an emotionally isolated child, with elderly parents, and an inability to verbalise, Sarah Tremlett was given a young horse to look after, which ultimately was sold against her wishes. Following her animal empathy and bonding, in this ‘stream of consciousness’ account of events, Sarah’s psyche creates a mythical, ‘otherkin’ horse persona which protects and interweaves with her experiences in the fashion world.

The book contains paintings from the time, including Horse-Woman, and the cover Cowboy Riding the Horse of the World to Death was a response to how London’s poetic decay was being taken over by developers. A parallel to ‘Women coming and going in a room’ is referred to from T.S. Eliot’s ‘Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’, but with ambiguous connotations, since it was one of the A-level texts that ended one part of her life. The prologue ‘Flight’ is also a poetry film, centred on her early relationship with her mother. 

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Satellite of Love Headliners May 28th 2025

At the Loco Klub 7pm for 7.30pm start

Bridget Hart +Elena Chamberlain

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Bridget Hart (they/them) is a working class writer based in Bristol. Known for their cutting wit and quietly heart-breaking poems, Bridget has been performing for over a decade across the UK at festivals and events including Shambala, Boomtown,  Hit the Ode, Say Owt and Edinburgh Fringe.

They have published two collections of poetry: Chewing Gum (Small Press, 2021) and Better Watch Your Mouth (Burning Eye, 2017). Bridget has poems and short stories published by Comma Press, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Late Britain, Bluebird Anthology and more. 

Elena Chamberlain is a poet from the Midlands. She has shared writing on local and national stages and in pages. In 2023, El was longlisted for the Outspoken Prize for Poetry (2023), they are an alumni of Apples and Snakes’ Word’s A Stage 2.0 (2024), and a participant of Apples and Snakes’ Future Voices (2023), representing the South West.

Until she retreats into the woods, Elena can be found on Instagram @arspoeticel

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Entry requirements: 14+, any under 18s accompanied by 21+ adult 1:1 ratio

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SOL Community Poem, February 2025

Catalytic Converter For Sale


Blackthorne is the Wrongbow, Thatchers rules!
One drink away from being an overly-ambitious power bottom
Yet in the tunnels of love, I will choo choo should
you need the shove.

A low January sun and everything is edged in light
head buzzing like a broken fridge
Unhand me at once you buffoon!
Somewhere a lemon is growing

I saw the cat with something
she said  paint me like one of you French girls
red-raw like the table cloths

Hand dryer eclipsing the words of the bards
mustn’t mute the muntering Munson
snog the mic so it picks you up.

Lurchers? They’re always plotting something
don’t be a hero, be a massive twat, Elon Musk salute
were I a brew crew crusty my dog upon a rope

I’d like to learn more languages
not eat your viral sandwiches.
If Welsh is the answer what is the question?
Does the Pope shit in the woods?

Mary Berry is crocheting a beanie in a sex dungeon.

Satellite of Love: Lyra Open Mic (+ Bertel Martin)

Wednesday 30th April at the Loco Klub
Doors open 7pm Open Mic 7.30pm
Event finishes 9.30pm

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Join Satellite of Love for the biggest open mic event at Lyra Festival 2025, with an extended open mic and a headline set from local legend Bertel Martin. Sign up on the door to perform on the night, or come along to enjoy an evening of local talent.

Bertel Martin:

Founder of Bristol Black Writers Group, Bertel has been active in Bristol’s writing scene for over 25 years, as a writer, performer and producer. Promoting Caribbean and African writers in Yardstick and with the British Council.

A co-founder of Word of Mouth (now Blah, Blah, Blah). Former Director of Plymouth International Book Festival and Director of City Chameleon, a publishing company specialising in poetry and short stories. Bertel has been published in a number of anthologies. Performance highlights include performing with Lee Evans, Benjamin Zephaniah, Attila Stockbroker and Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze.


Entry requirements: no age restrictions

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SOL Presents: Aidan Andrew Dun – Excommunications

Book Launch and Open Mic

Wednesday April 16th on The John Sebastian Lightship
Doors open 7pm event starts 7.30pm Close 10pm

The Lightship does not have step free access

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Aidan Andrew Dun will be reading from his new collection of 108 modern sonnets titled Excommunications.

Aidan A D has read at the Royal Albert Hall (for the launch of his epic poem Vale Royal in 1995) the Festival Hall, the Ledbury, Cheltenham, and Swindon literary festivals and he has lectured at the British Library on the Kings Cross Mysteries.

Other published works include:

India Cantos -Universal 2002
The Uninhabitable City 2005
Salvia Divinorum 2007
McCool 2010
Unholyland 2016
Excommunications 2025

AAD’s triad installed at Granary Square, Kings Cross, reads: “Kings Cross, dense with angels and histories, there are cities beneath your pavements, cities behind your skies. Let me see!” This triad was originally spray-painted on the walls of Battle Bridge just before it was demolished. The developers noticed it there and asked AAD if they could install the poem in Granary Square.

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Satellite of Love April Headliners: Bradley Taylor & M. L. Walsh

Wednesday 23rd April 2025
On the John Sebastian Lightship
Doors open 7.00pm. Open mic starts 7.30pm – Close 10pm

The Lightship does not have step free access

This month Satellite of Love Open Mic returns to the Lightship for one last time.


Bradley Taylor is an award-winning performance poet born and based in Birmingham. In 2024 he won the Roundhouse Poetry Slam, the night of which was the biggest poetry slam in history, and in 2025 he releases his debut collection ‘You Missed The Best Part’ with Verve Poetry Press. Bradley is also the co-host of The Big Gay Poetry Night alongside M. L. Walsh, which has featured poets such as Joelle Taylor, Kandace Siobhan Walker & Sanah Ahsan.

Bradley has appeared at the Hay Festival, Cheltenham Literature Festival, The Inspirational Youth Awards, on BBC News and on BBC Radio 6 Music as part of Craig Charle’s ‘Class of 2024’, in which Craig Charles described him as ‘A brand new voice and a fresh perspective on the art of poetry and performance’.

Bradley’s work has appeared in Gutter Magazine, Shooter, Strix and across Birmingham train stations as part of Birmingham Hippodrome’s collaboration with photographer Paul Stringer’s project The City That Spoke To Me.

He writes for, and about, people.

M. L. WALSH is a performance poet specializing in comic absurdism and the construction of narrative through voice and characterisation. Since finding her form in the poetic monologue, she has experimented with the translation of performance poetry from stage to page, and how theatrical technique (and its removal) can modify a text. Her debut collection My Dog Has Never Read This was released in March 2025 with Verve Poetry Press.

Entry requirements:   Anyone under the age of 14 must be accompanied by an adult 21+ years old.

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Satellite of Love Hosts: Poetry Film Club

On Board The John Sebastian Lightship

Tuesday 18th March. Doors 7pm Screening 7.30pm

March’s Poetry Film Club, on the day after St Patrick’s Day, is a Celtic Special! We will be looking at poetry films made by filmmakers from Wales, Ireland and Scotland. 

There will be films in the Welsh language presented by Steffan Phillips, poetry film from Ireland by Grace Wells, Pat Boran, Colm Scully and James Kelly, and a selection of films from Scotland by Barry Hollow, Steven Smart and Rachel McCrum.

Our discussion will be how different areas of the UK respond to the creation of poetry film and whether or not there is a ‘Celtic’ style of poetry film.

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Community Poem November 2024

Safeword

Harry and Kate went to masturbate,
loving the vibration of love,
a slow, slinky ooziness.
A sausage, a hole and Vinted.
Breathe in, said Kate, exhale the fire of living.
The bag was bulging.

We need to establish a safeword, said Harry
I’m thinking of a line, said Kate, but it’s not happening,
the only thing that comes to mind is a thousand fucking doves.
Harry suggested: I love Ian Beale…?
Chocolate coins? said Kate Time is a construct!
Dare you! Dare you! Double dare you?

The naughty little mouse nibbled my member, said Harry
Well, your compliment wasn’t good enough, said Kate,
asking to see my anus on Instagram is not a love poem.
An ode for a misplaced hip flask? said Harry.

I hate loving you, you love hating me, said Harry,
and the postage was paid in Northern Ireland.

Days are unequal in the struggles of the dead, said Kate
What is stopping ants from taking over the world? Democracy?

I hope this line is read out of context
like Leda, like Persephone, like women, women, women. 
On this pirate ship poetry pandemonium,
we’re all just twatting around in the glitter.

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Satellite of Love Headliners: Jo Bell & Carlo Hornilla

Wednesday March 26th 2025
Loco Klub doors open at 7pm open mic starts 7.30pm
Evening finish at 10pm

Jo Bell

Jo Bell is a well-loved poet who has appeared everywhere from Glastonbury to Buckingham Palace, by way of running the UK’s National Poetry Day and winning major poetry prizes. She runs award-winning poetry communities, she writes best-selling books including 52 and How to Be a Poet. Catch her on a rare Bristol visit, before she hits the road with her memoir Boater, out in June with HarperNorth.

Carlo Sebastian Hornilla

Carlo Sebastian Hornilla (They/Them) is a Bristol-based Filipino queer artist, illustrator, workshop facilitator, creative consultant, spoken word poet, organised chaos, lover or lists, ticker of boxes and awkward human being.

They use fun, play and conversation as a platform to explore introspective feelings, interpersonal connection and the complexities that exist within them.

They will say a bunch of words and you might listen to them. Maybe you will laugh, you might cry (only if you want to). Maybe it doesn’t matter… Either way, they hope you have a perfectly average and tolerable time.

Entry requirements:   Anyone under the age of 14 must be accompanied by an adult 21+ years old.

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