Robert Sheppard: Blue Bus Reading (set list)

Set list for the London Reading with Michael Zand, Patricia Farrell and Robert Sheppard on 18^th August, 2015 at The Lamb, Lamb’s Conduit Street, the 103^rd event in THE BLUE BUS series.

More on Michael here

More on Patricia here

More on me here.

reading at the Blue Bus in 2012

I read in two sets, the first from my new book Words Out of Time (See here.)

I read

from 'The Given', part one, the introductory poem, 'I remember' (to contrast with the unread 'I don't remember...' litany of the prose that follows; read my talk on writing The Given here); (Read Alan Baker's review of The Given here.)

from 'Arrival', the two short poems announcing the arrival of the rival, again to contrast with the prose which I had read at the Blue Bus the last time I read. (One was the final poem here.)

from 'When', I read the whole of 'Work', the final piece of the book which distends time (and is 'about' or 'round and about' work.

I also read Lee Harwood's 'One, Two, Three', in homage to the man (with whom I read at the Blue Bus, as I was to explain two days later in Brighton).

In the second half I read all of the 'Petrarch 3' sequence. (See here for its inception.) As usual the audience went silent for the Jimmy Savile poem. The presence of dedicatee and semi-onlie begetter Tim Atkins was especially appreciated.  

The other readings were exciting and the evening seemed especially magic, with so many unexpected faces (some of whom I would meet again on the Thursday at the Lee Harwood celebration; see here).