Reading at the midsummer poetry festival in Sheffield

A beautiful long day in Sheffield, first the symposium on anthologies, curated by Agnes Lehoczky, and featuring some old friends and some new ones, then a reading. Good to see JT Welsch, Kate Kililea, Alan Halsey, Geraldine Monk, Nathan Hamilton amongst some people I'd never seen speak before, Adam Piette, Angelina Ayers, and some really interesting papers. A huge privilege to finally meet Kaarina Hollo too, who I've corresponded with since her father's death. By coincidence I also managed to squeeze in dinner with Nathan Jones, who happened to be in Sheffield. It was a city quietened, the first hot day of the year, leafy, peaceful, and after my reading I managed to catch up with my old friend and collaborator, the artist Sian Williams, who had moved the city from London recently and left me feeling I had seen things from just inside. Happy to share a width of my work at the reading too, making me realise how much Ive managed to put out there, and to finish reading my poem dedicated to Anselm Hollo in front of his daughter.