London Poetry Meetup

If any of you would-be poet-types are wafting and drooping about London, let me recommend the London Poetry Meetup. We met in the Artillery Arms on Monday to celebrate Shakespeare's birthday and it was quite the food of love.

In advance of each meeting, a great poet (or a handful of 'em) is chosen, and you bring along some of their work to read and some of your own. Along the way, some beer is drunk and some merry tangents are gone on.

The next one is going to feature Browning, Tennyson, Eliot and Pound - who would miss it for the world?

If you're interested, you need to register with the Meetup website:

http://www.meetup.com/t/tf_3741314

Then join the London Poetry Meetup Group.

despite some delay...

Moloch who entered my soul early! Moloch in whom
I am a consciousness without a body! Moloch
who frightened me out of my natural ecstasy!
Moloch whom I abandon!

Last summer, sitting in the sun with my useless degree and dwindling funds, I had a mini-crisis. I really did not know what to do with myself - besides write and publish unprofitable things(sorry guys). So I decided to get a little bit of direction and put in a late application for a publishing MA. A few weeks later I packed my bags preparing to bury myself in a sea of books in oxford. Unfortunately they were mainly books of the soul draining kind: business, editorial, marketing...all the things designed to make you forget why you want to get into the business. And oxford publishing types it turned out are very punctual with perfect attendance, most of whom it appeared saw publishing as a business.

And then there was me, always running in fifteen minutes late with unbrushed hair and colourful skirts freshly torn from bike chains. I never thought I would fit in, for the first six weeks i lived in a hostel going back and forth between the career hungry world and a world where australians played bongos, drank beer and danced on a rooftop terrace each night as we huddled around the heater and under large impractical umbrellas that threatened to take us up in a gust of wind. But I had to make a decision and soon relocated close to my college where I now live in a little split level attic room with no carpet, unpainted walls and fairy lights to compensate for the poor lighting. I soon found business types often hide creative goblins under their hats, got stuck into the course but never quite managed to trade my coloured skirts for sombre colours or master the art of punctuality.

As I was battling business demons, my creative partner missy darcy was battling some of her own. Sadly she has never been able to stay still for too long, dreaming of postcodes to exploit and twist to her desires. So she took the plunge and joined me on the relocation trail. But we are now well underway brainstorming, designing, having unsuccessful barbeques and drinking cocktails on foreign waters.

In two weeks time we should see a new design for the Moloch homepage, which thanks to my evil publishing course will be compatible with all web browsers. By July we hope to have the summer issue up and running!

Life has been hectic. Despite our hopes and unrealistic plans Moloch turned Bi-annual, we may produce more of them if we get more submissions and life throws us a few bones. But for now you must submit to moloch, stick your babies in that giant bull god and let us help you to light the flames.