New show: The Life of a Modern-Day Poet

[AgentPete]

The latest GBH has just been released: fittingly, for it is National Poetry Day here in the UK, our guest is a rocking young poet, Salena Godden.

Hope you enjoy it. She performs some of her work exceedingly well, and it will give you a glimpse into the life of a professional poet, i.e. someone who can still manage to make a living from this most perilous of art forms.

Remember, you can subscribe to all GBH’s in iTunes, just click here if you have an iPhone, iPad or similar.

Or just listen on the site itself:

In Godden We Trust: Meet The Mae West Of The Spoken Word Scene

 

[Katie-Ellen]

She's fun. Poetry is meant to be for everyone, it's grass roots oral tradition. But you said it, Peter. Where's the money? I know some stonkingly good poets. One or two could be future classic greats. BUT if they don't get a publicity machine behind them, they could easily remain largely hidden gems. And even if they do, it might not be sufficient to prevent their work from sinking with little trace. There's Bob Beagrie and Steve Ely. Wowsers. These are honest to goodness bards. The Bard lives. But while they are great fun, they're learned in the history and legends they deal in; not necessarily as mass market accessible as Selena or Benjamin Zepheniah, who's just great. There's Josephine Dickinson, who has done US poetry tours with her famous poetry publisher, the American Galway Kinnell. She has several anthologies out, but she still relies on this funding pot or that. She lost her hearing as a child, got a cochlear implant now, but she is also a concert standard pianist. And she keeps sheep. She's beautiful too, which should have nothing to do with it, but couldn't hurt.

Another friend, Sarah Littlefeather, was adopted to Britain off a Native American reservation. She is Ojibwe, married to an Englishman, living in Cumbria. Talk about cultural identity issues. Her unpublished poems are about identity and family. They are like eggs, so complete of themselves. She works as a freelance private carer, specializing in caring for dementia sufferers helps a farmer out, is married to a much respected Blues musician who knew the Yardbirds, played with David Essex, and other very famous outfits. He is a quiet man, not a household name, but still touring UK and overseas with a blues band.

Such TALENT around. Gob-smacking talent. But talent, alas, is not enough to guarantee basic financial security .