Some mornings your room is a rain cloud My old boots are letting the puddles in The pillow cradles my skull and forms a crucible for my dreams Are we nearly dead yet? Darkness on the quay Ghost-gulls fly and lights are reflected in the water The pre-loved bin bags of Halloween rustle ominously in the gloaming First time jitters once again Her dress was made of music Sparkling lights water my eyes The boat turned poets into angels with bright halos Inspiration, community, friendships, and smiles. All afloat on this boat.
Out of context seagulls (a one-way conversation with Shrek)
SHREK! You crushed the last piece of my shattered heart. Little did you know you lost a strong girl. I’d pay £1,200 for a new mic stand or an exorcist and I still think contactless is magic. SHREK! There’s an out-of-context seagull troubling the roof of an urban semi. My cat is awesome. Speak your truth, Eric! The fun is in the egg TOMATOES. MIC DROP
Stand-up poet and lo-fi theatremaker Jonny Fluffypunk has been dragging his art around the UK and occasionally beyond for over 25 years, deafly fusing bittersweet autobiography, disillusionment and wonder into an act that has established him as a firm favourite at gigs, festivals and housing benefit offices everywhere. He has two volumes of poems, micro-fictions and threadbare philosophy published by Burning Eye, and his solo ‘no-fi’ stand-up spoken word theatre shows, including his latest, If We Just Keep Going, We Will Get There in the End, have toured extensively around theatres, pubs, garden sheds, summer houses, record shops and Britain’s other ad-hoc performance spaces in a blatant championing of homespun DIY culture. When not performing, Jonny runs workshops, putting shapes and colours into the minds of young and old alike. He’s a crucial third of Hip Yak Poetry Shack, ‘the south west’s favourite pop-up poetry event’, and also runs Mr Fluffypunk’s Penny Gaff, an alternative cabaret in his adopted home town of Stroud.
I live in a dustbin littered with gold You can tell its art-my Grandfather said- because there are no people in it I was watching Line of Duty
Drop, beat, drop, beat, drop
Time flies The beautiful smallness you feel when gazing up at the sky and realising, somewhere up there, is a boat that never moves Its behind you
Drop, beat, drop, beat, drop
Love is a verb Gravy Clit Ramen Telling talk from mutter is like telling Stork from butter
Drop, beat, drop, beat, drop
On the bad days, please read this Your legacy is not yours- I think about profiting from your death more than I probably should
Lou Reed- As I entered a lock on my Satellite of Love !!! narrow boat xx I am begging Mars to write a line, I tell them, the poem needs them, he needs you satellite circling a satellite of love.
Kat is a Bristol-based writer and performer, working mainly in the field of spoken word poetry. They are the curent Bristol City Poet (2022-2024) and were nominated for the Jerwood Poetry in Performance Award 2022. Kat has performed at poetry events and festivals across the UK, including WOMAD, Shambala, Lyra: Bristol Poetry Festival 2020 and the Eden Project. Their poetry has been featured in Under the Radar, Ink Sweat & Tears and Bath Magg and their debut collection Love Beneath the Nails is published by Verve Poetry Press. Kat has recently finished their UK tour of Dry Season – a multi-year spoken word theatre show/project exploring age, identity and menopause.
Jenny Mitchell won the Gregory O’Donoghue Prize 2023 for a single poem, and the Poetry Book Awards 2021 for her second collection, Map of a Plantation, which is on the syllabus at Manchester Metropolitan University.
She’s won numerous competitions, is widely-published and has performed at the Houses of Parliament. Her latest publication is the pamphlet shared with Zoë Brigley and Roy McFarlane called Family Name.
Her Lost LanguageMap of a PlantationResurrection of a Black Man
There once was a man from Nantucket Who often thought well then (……………NO, NO I’m not going there!)
Peace to all here tonight The whole world is in our hands Newspapers all tell us the Earth is dying, but really its hoping and sighing. Light-hearted skipping souls This paper is sodden as is my heart Whilst cultivating exclusively coloured socks just for you.
The Zebra’s tonsils swung like a metronome click-clacking- And, what’s more, the gull that shat on my head, on the way to the show, did not stop me from reading a poem. We bade farewell, with a bourgeois bon soir- I blew a kiss, it missed!
Poets who can’t count also seem to have no sense of proportion as 2 tiny poems GROW…… and require lengthy introductions!!!
One Day I will write something clever, but until then…… carry on, there is plenty of time. Thankfully in the meantime, I like beans, purple edibles and Blue Duck eggs!
I used to be indecisive but…….. now I’m not so sure It’s everything and nothing- I know nothing and that’s something ha ha.
Sorry about the curtain with me draped head to toe in full length lammentta the dandelion forgot the time, knowing Unity in the community, presents an opportunity.
On waking I found I’d lost my identity And yet…..we thrust onward…. Even the birds are ambivalent as they carve their way through air made solid with industrial smoke and smell.
Colin is dead, with his fuzzy camel face. So sad…….., but I am valued, I am love. You ask if I’m emotional? Fuck yeah!
Jemma Hathaway likes to put words next to one another and see if they hit it off. Her poems have been featured on BBC Radio Bristol, BBC iPlayer and she was the 2020 Hammer & Tongue slam champion for Bristol. She has supported Joelle Taylor, performed at the Royal Albert Hall and appeared on Sky Arts Life & Rhymes hosted by Benjamin Zephaniah. She is a Button Poetry Short Form contest winner and in 2021 self-published her first poetry pamphlet, January.
Last year she won the Hip Yak Poetry Shack slam at Frome Festival and performed her first festival set at WOMAD and this year she has been lucky enough to support Roger McGough.
Her poems are a sticky dancefloor for the ongoing dance-off between her head and her heart. She hopes you like her moves. She is currently working on her first full collection.
We rummaged in the toolbox but only found The hammer.
We rummaged in the toolbox but only found Cascades of silver glitter, Shimmering ghosts.
We rummaged in the toolbox but only discovered My anatomy; It smells of curry It wasn’t very nice But the dog ate it anyways.
We rummaged in the toolbox but only found Ferry boat Margaret Swinging low with rats, Boats, And rainbow oil.
We rummaged in the toolbox but only found A city in levels Like a Victoria spongecake.
Love finds itself, Rummaged in the toolbox, Walking through the city’s dark history Everything is black and white Except in the dead of night.
We rummaged in the toolbox but only found The last poem Of the last dug dazzled. We rummaged in the toolbox but only found Purple pen pushes words from my mind.
We rummaged in the toolbox but only found Barbados to Bristol and back. Reimagined in dance & verse Choreo poetry curiosity, hoping To bring on the flow in me.
Speak your own truth. Love me So don’t scare me of all these pomp & circumstales.
Three headline poets and open mic slots on board the John Sebastian Lightship
Doors open 7pm for 7.30pm start
Satellite Of Summer, a special event brought to the Lightship by Satellite Of Love Open Mic Poetry.
Toby Thompson
Previous Glastonbury Poetry Slam Champion Toby Thompson has written commissions for the RSC, The Royal Geographical Society and the National Portrait Gallery. He’s performed his work at The Natural History Museum; The Royal Albert Hall and The House of Lords. His one man poetry and music storytelling bonanza ‘For The Record’ won the Pleasance Indie Award for Best Theatre Show at at the Edinburgh Fringe 2018. His show ‘I Wish I Was A Mountain’ won the Victor Award for Best Theatre Show at Philadelphia’s IPAY Festival 2020. In 2022, Toby toured ‘I Wish I Was A Mountain’ to China for six months, and also to Ireland, where he received a 5 star review in The Irish Times.
‘Entrancing… The words tumble out of him like an extended jazz solo’ – The Guardian
‘Touching, captivating, and toe-tinglingly lovely, Toby’s work is a joy’ – Edinburgh Guide, 5 stars ‘…easily one of the most gifted young wordsmiths I have ever had the pleasure to encounter.’ – Akala
Iona Lee
Iona Lee is a poet, visual artist, music-maker, storyteller and spoken-word performer from Edinburgh. She has been a prominent member of Scotland’s live poetry scene for ten years, appearing on radio (The Verb, The Digital Human) and television (The Big Scottish Book Club), and has performed in venues and on festival stages all over the UK and Europe (Glastonbury, The World Slam Championships, the Edinburgh International Book Festival.) Iona has a BA in illustration from the Glasgow School of Art and a first class MFA in Art & Philosophy from DJCAD. Her pamphlet (Polygon, 2018) was shortlisted for a Saltire Award, and her upcoming debut collection, Anamnesis, was shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award. Iona’s writing has been described by Liz Lochead as “youthful, sexy, sharp, ferally female, and funny”.
Iona Lee’s photography credit goes to Laura Meek – www.laurameek.com
Ben Vince
Ben is a Bristol based poet and performer, whose work seeks intimacy above all else – be it with other humans, the more-than-human, or the spiritual. He has been published in Horizon, has edited for The Scores Journal of Poetry and Prose, and is both a commended Foyles Young Poet and winner of a Fresher’s Writing Prize.
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