The Planets Aligning

I was honoured and moved by the words about Minx by Joelle Taylor when I read them on the books fly cover. ‘Minx is a splinter of a book, something that interrupts the body. It’s a beautiful violence, each page a shock of poetry that renders an underclass family vivid. Rich, delicate, and brutal. Minx is essential reading, a constant companion. Read it.’  Joelle Taylor @jtaylortrash                      

I posted last weeks ‘notes from the little Minx’ a little early as I was reading at The Social in Soho with some pretty amazing poets – Andrew MacMillan, Fiona Benson, Mona Arshi, Michael Simmons Roberts, and Sarah Howe. Ironically, I was able to thank Anthony Anaxagorou for kindly allowing me to use two quotes from Joelle’s excellent book C+nto and Other Poems, as epigraphs in Minx as he was at the reading. I also got my hands on a copy of my little Minx for the first time. It felt strange to hold her newness and I’m not sure I’ve fully grasped that she’s actually here… but I will.

This week I’m heading to The Satellite of Love in Bristol to hear Helen Ivory and Martin Figura read so I’m posting early and will head out into the garden, stare at the night sky and see if I can spot the planets that are, apparently, in a cosmic parade. This must be a sign!