Some of These Things Are Beautiful (by sarah)

Last night I went to watch my friend Dan Holloway perform his show Some of These Things Are Beautiful as part of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival.

He is a fantastic poet and as always his set was emotionally charged dealing with creative freedom and the intensity of life and death.

Lighting levels at the venue were a bit tricky so I apologise for the quality of the photographs.

Again I did some experiments with long exposures and this photo came out in a way that I just feel fits with Dan's creative zest - to me it is a poet in a spiralling tunnel of thought and creativity.

The event also had two other poets performing - I unfortunately had to run away before the last performer but I did catch James Webster.

Who did a wonderfully funny piece on time travel and the self - it was philosophically deep but light in the presentation.

The event took place in a lovely bar called The Strand in Cheltenham which had some lovely wall art I will have to go back and photograph at some point.

Anna Saunders one of the Festival Directors was there in person to compare and I just love this shot of her I got - I think it shows her fantastically warm and bubbly personality.

So It Goes (by sarah)

Last night I went to a truly inspiring event - So It Goes by the Cheltenham Improvisers Orchestra at the Cheltenham Poetry Festival.

Sound rippled around the room, building and echoing and fading away to almost nothingness, reminding me of the psychedelic of previous decades mixed with the fragments of poems building up to create a picture of the stretching endless existence.

Pictures of the cosmos played in the back ground and occasionally across on of the performers leaving a silhouette of them, stark in the nebula.

I could have closed my eyes and just listened creating pictures for stories and the like but then I would have missed the spectacles of how they produced some of the sounds - vibrating, glowing massage spider on a balloon for example.

I had great fun taking photos again hence the black and white - I also played around with long exposures to see if I could get an image that captured the essence of the music.

When I spoke to the poets afterwards it turned out they didn't know who was going to read when - this was interesting as the poets seemed to pick up and continue with the style of the previous poet but adapted to them - as if their was an invisible creative string connecting them within the performance.

I really loved this event and could have easily spent all of last night writing - I took quiet a few arty shots:

Poets including Anna Saunders, Adam Horovitz, and Sara-Jane Arbury to name but a few.

Dan Sluman and Mark Burnhope (by sarah)

Last night I went to a sell out event at the Cheltenham Poetry Festival were Dan Sluman and Mark Burnhope both read out their amazing works. Both explored illness and life altering events as well as the obsession with death and sex and a myrraid of other topics. All sculpted into a lyrical wonder.

Also I found the black and white mode on the camera works at low light levels were as the colour setting is all grainy.

I remember first meeting Dan at poetry cafe when it was at the museum and art gallery a few years ago and have always found his work deeply moving.

Sadly there are not more of Mark as it was a sell out gig and I couldn't move around to get pictures.

Dan's book is Absence Has A Weight Of Its Own

And Mark's is Snowboy

There was also an open mic before they started their reading - if you want to see any of the photos in a larger format just click on them.

And lastly - I love this photo I took of Mark listening to the poetry even though it came out a bit blurry.

Knitted Poem – The Price of Art in Luton (by sarah)

Yesterday I went back into Cheltenham to photograph some more of the events at the Cheltenham Poetry Festival which was brilliant! But before they started I popped over to the Waterstones to see the knitted poem that Centre Arts has had all the local knitting groups taking part in. The poem is The Price of Art in Luton from the John Hegley - part of the Dog collection.

There is also has a knitted homeless guy and his dog on it.

I believe it is being auctioned off at the end of the festival! Alaric being from Luton examined the poem more closely - though in my opinion from the wrong angle!

War of the Words (by sarah)

Last night I went and performed in my fourth ever poetry slam - this time it was War of the Words at the Cheltenham Poetry Festival. As typified by the other slams I came last but I am happy as I performed my best yet in my opinion. I did my poem Shy about selective mutalism and had many people including the other poets commenting on how good it was. There is a very graining video which I want to edit into something at the end of the festival - but here is the recording I did of the poem using the hammond organ last year.

There were some absolutely amazing performers last night including Spoz, Peter Wyton and Ben Norris.