Poetry reading at KGB Bar, New York 06 Nov 2017

I flew to New York specially to give my reading at the historic soviet themed KGB poetry series, on 85 E. 4th Street. Held on a Monday night it’s poetry series is in its 20th year now. KGB Bar is a New York City literary institution, named by The Village Voice and New Yorker magazine as the best literary venue in the city. I was on the bill with award winning poets Tadeusz Dabowski and Ariana Reines. Ariana Reines has been described by Michael Silberblatt of NPR's Bookworm as "one of the crucial voices of her generation."

KGB bar is a red velvet womb like room, with stained glass, and old Russian propaganda posters. I gave my reading first, opening with my poem Shackles, which received a round of applause. The audience were incredibly receptive and it was lovely to see some familiar faces again that had attended my poetry reading at Berl’s in Brooklyn in April. I read poems from both collections and a handful that will be in my third collection, which will be out in Spring 2018.

After my reading there was a break during which it was lovely to hear feedback from the audience, which poems they’d enjoyed most and how it’d affected them.

We resumed the reading to hear Tadeusz Dabowski’s witty and visceral poems, which generated much applause and laughter. And the grand finale was Ariana Reines. I really enjoyed her reading, I think my favourite of her poems was the last one she read with its complex imagery and truths that cut right through to you.

I’d like to give a very special thanks to Stephanie La Cava, Matthew Yeager, Dennis and everyone at KGB, and Ariana Reines and Tadeusz Dabowski.

I’m looking forward to returning to KGB soon.

My introduction from the evening

Welcome everyone to Week 7, Season 40, Year 20 of the KGB Monday Night Poetry Series. I’m happy to back, at least for an evening, and to stand up here as underprepared as I’ve been to introduce a poet in the five and a half years I’ve stood up here introducing poets. David Lehman used to be able to do this without notes, which to me always seeming like skiing a black diamond slope without poles, or driving a bus on a switch-backing mountain road at night without headlights.

Our first poet this evening comes to us from the city of London. She’s a poet and performer, the author of two volumes of verse “Rocking Underground” and “The Lock and the Key.” Her name reached my ears first from a poet for whom I (and basically everyone in poetry) have a tremendous amount of respect - Dan Chiasson; he suggested we have this young British poet at KGB and the adjective that he used to describe her work was “glam.” I don’t know what my definition of glam is - maybe I don’t have one - but I expected a patina of irony to coat the poems; one way to protect a poem is for a poet to…hmm…hold it by the ankles and dip it in irony, often to interesting effect; I expected a polyphony of speaking tones, not a darkly sonorous vowel music, not a poetry of singing, full of wildness, and reverence for the spiritual forces at play in the world; Scarlett’s poems, even when written in prose, are written with an imperative that they have to work when said aloud; the breath in them is the breath of a "singing" speaking voice; the speaker is on the balls of her feet, moving with a forward lean, and some speed....there’s a spiralling music that she generates in her poem THE FIFTH CIRCLE OF HELL by the irregular repetition of that phrase, the fifth circle of hell. For emerging from an island whose citizens are known for their stolid emotional control, her poems are startlingly emotional. What else to say? She wrote, directed and starred in her poetic short film “Burning” which was produced by BAFTA winning producer Charlie Hanson in 2012. In October 2016 GQ online released a video of Scarlett performing her poem Feathers at Leighton House to celebrate National Poetry Day. Sir Van Morrison commented on Scarlett's poetry: ""What strikes me about Scarlett's work it that it's very cutting edge and it's making poetry interesting again. I love both the intensity and the spiritual aspect she conveys." Scarlett is currently working on her third collection of poetry which will be released in Spring 2018.