7-9 pm every Wednesday for our usual reasonably innocuous brand of word sport. This week, celebratory as our mood is, we have decided that the time is ripe for the return of, among other things, the unfortunately named…

Metaphor Madness! – An abstract noun (e.g. love, justice) and a commonplace image (e.g. birds flocking, a clown drinking whisky) are selected randomly, perhaps from a shoe. The Fun To Be Had: write a bunch of words that render the commonplace image a metaphor for the abstract noun. Just for kicks. E.g. “Birds flock behind my kneecaps, I am jelly on a pinhead under walls of sky that keep my unprotected and astounded new migration locked on course for your fresh Canada”. Or something. We’ll aim to keep it brief, but we needn’t rush it.

See how I shamelessly recycled a previous blurb? There’ll be shameless recycling and much much more at this week’s Words + Cake. The original and still the only, for better or worse, one of whatever we are.

Phase Two, as ever, entails the sharing of whatever words have broken our inner silence of late. Long ones, short ones, fat ones, thin ones. Words.

See you there, perhaps. It’ll be fun, perhaps.

So that’s Wednesday 29th September and Wednesday 6th October.

After that, we’ll be meeting at The Bridge Hotel. That particular bulletin is for another time, however, and another blog post.

While Monday meetings will continue at MiN for the next couple of weeks, we will, due to its closure early in October, be moving our base of operations in the near future; watch this space. It is certain that the next Words + Cake Special will be held elsewhere, but by hook or by crook it will happen! Indeed, it will be (not too much) bigger, (just) better (enough), and lots of other things too. You’ll be hearing from us soon…

Thanks again,

Jack

While the specifics of this meeting are yet to be confirmed (watch this space), you can expect The Poetry Still Life that there regrettably wasn’t time for at WC4, as well as some more abstract noun-based frivolity. There will, of course, be all the usual sharing of poems and related chat. And cake. And wine.

The Bold Itinerary

Word Sport

#0: The Gushing Torrent of Consciousness – we’ll hit the ground running this week, and in the process flex our writing wrists. Automatic writing/wordoodling/free association; whatever you want to call it, that’s how we’ll start. 4-5 minutes of this, that’s all.

#1: Metaphor Madness! – An abstract noun (e.g. love, justice) and a commonplace image (e.g. birds flocking, a clown drinking whisky) are selected randomly, perhaps from a shoe. The Fun To Be Had: write a bunch of words that render the commonplace image a metaphor for the abstract noun. Just for kicks. E.g. “Birds flock behind my kneecaps, I am jelly on a pinhead under walls of sky that keep my unprotected and astounded new migration locked on course for your fresh Canada”. Or something. We’ll aim to keep it brief, but we needn’t rush it.

#2: Poetry Still Life – A still life with words as paint (see mound of gubbins on table). Interpret the brief as you wish; we’ll let you.

That should bring us to our INTERVAL at approximately 8 o’clock, or later, it depends on the aforementioned gubbins. Please ensure that you smoke cigarettes during this time, and top up your cup of cake. 10-20 minutes of this reprehensible idleness, depending on the aforementioned gubbins. This is the perfect opportunity to pass around copies of the poem(s) you wish to read aloud after the break, if you feel like it.

Until We See Fit To Leave

The remainder of the meeting will be spent in the now customary comfort of reading/reciting poems aloud, whether for the purpose of showing off or for some deeper, more profound reason, like positive reinforcement, that sort of thing. One part poetry to two parts chat.

Epilogue

The Pub have kindly offered to provide us with drinks in exchange for money; we would be fools to spurn their hospitality.

The Lizard Poetry Society is a new Newcastle-based poetry collective. These are indeed early days for us, and our initial goal is to involve as many people as possible in an exchange of thoughts and ideas about poetry (our own writing and poetry in general), and about poetry in Newcastle, a city with a proud heritage in that field.

Phase 1: “Words + Cake”, an informal though focused weekly meeting (see Events, above) in the centre of town, centred on sharing our words and imaginations (and on eating cake), but also incorporating any and all grander schemes that occur to us.

Phase 2: Well… please come along and help us work out the finer details. Poetry Readings. Miscellaneous Publications. This blog. Startling Multimedia Adventures. Etc. Etc. All ideas are welcome, indeed encouraged, as the Lizard Poetry Society is ultimately a means by which to gather together the poets and poetry lovers of the city, the region, and for that matter anywhere else in the universe, to enjoy, encourage and share in all things poetic.

Join us if you can, and/or get in touch here, via email (lizardpoetry@gmail.com), or via our Facebook group.

Peace To You All,

The Universal Lizard