Interview with Anna Somerset

Hello Poetry Lovers

Welcome back to the talk show studio! (Rapturous applause from the audience)

Today we have the honour of the vibrant poet, Anna Somerset being our guest. (Audience get excited).

Now you lot settle down, because here is Anna Somerset now !!

(Our esteemed guest wafts elegantly down the lighted stairs).

Thanks Heather!  Honoured to be in your boudoir, reading old copies of Bunty!

My parents were both visual artists, but decided to make me right-handed which seemed to nip any talent for that in the bud.

I enjoyed writing poetry at infants school, and studied poetry in French and German at university and had a wonderfully inspiring work colleague and poet, Anna Stearman in my 30s, but I was directly called to verse myself after the unexpected and tragic death of a friend in my late forties. 

Poems kept arriving fully formed at 4am.   A working Mum & stepmum, supporting my mother with my Dad’s dementia and after his death, caring for Mum, kept the poetry a modest trickle for a number of years. 

I came across Survivors Poetry by chance in 2016.  Debbie, Keith and the gang were a revelation, and from Survivors  Jason Why encouraged me to darken the doors of Paper Tiger poetry in 2018. 

Since then it has become a healthy addiction and escalated to other places where I have been lucky enough to do feature slots.

I am lucky enough to have found Greenwich Poetry Workshop, run by Doreen Hinchcliffe and every Thursday do a poetry masterclass, which exposes me to poets I wouldn’t otherwise have encountered together with kind and helpful criticism. 

 I did an excellent workshop with Vanessa Lampert which inspired a new poem in a completely different style. 

I love the energy of the performance poets I see regularly – Steve Tasane, Richard Allen, the irrepressible Lee Campbell and you, Pip Macdonald and PoetryBird Heather. 

It has been wonderful  to see people grow as poets – Ian Preznansky and Rachel Tansy Chadwick for example. 

Shelley is a favourite – To a Skylark fills me with joy and the Mask of Anarchy resonates still.  I prefer D H Lawrence’s poems to his nvels. I find Lorca spell-binding, but sadly only in translation.  Goethe and Heine enchant me, as does Rilke.  Benjamin Zepheniah was a shining light of wonder whom I was lucky enough to hear in person.  I would love to have heard the amazing Maya Angelou. I loved seeing  Toria Garbutt, whose performance at Morecambe Poetry Festival was extraordinarily moving.  Liz Berry is someone I will be seeing in person soon.

This, my first collection, came together thanks to the grim days of Lockdown.  I became properly aware of England’s Atlantis, Doggerland and had the time to research it.  It struck me how fragile the world is and how it has always been in a state of flux. 

The collection is like the Woolworth’s  pick a mix of my youth.  Lots of different stuff – from the first poems I wrote in the wake of the death of my friend, Jean-Claude to some angry political stuff, to constantly being fatshamed and some humorous observations about being a carer.

Working with gifted renaissance man Keith Bray on the editing of my work was an absolute delight.   

I am most of the way through a second collection, A State of Catlessness, which again covers lots of different themes, and is funny as well as serious. 

My most recent feature spot at Talking Rhythm was an absolute delight.  I love the mixture of music and poetry.  Performing alongside excellent fellow poets is constantly a huge thrill.

I loved the energy of the first Play on Words, Lee Campbell’s Aurelia Studios Poetry Night that I went to, and am really excited to be doing a feature slot there in November. 

The New Poetry Shack has a cool vibe and Paper Tiger is enchanting.  Was thrilled to run away to Morecambe poetry festival and stalk you!  I love the painting Keith Bray did of me….

 And the worst?!!  There haven’t been bad poetry gigs.

  A couple of decades ago I was Widow Twankey in a touring production of Aladdin.  We had three shows a day and had to drive the minibus and put up the scenery. 

Little boys would lift up my skirt; Abanazar stank, we ran out of 50p’s for the electric meter and one day whilst we were playing bingo in an attempt to keep warm between shows, the minibus was broken into and my make up bag nicked…. that was a bad gig!! 

SSh! I can clearly see Dobby’s asleep on your lap there. Perhaps it’s best I tiptoe out now.

Er – well… (our esteemed guest looks shamefaced)

Yes, well, must get along to Paper Tiger Poetry now! Bye!!!

(Our esteemed guest legs it up the lighted stairs)

(Ecstatic applause)

For a real treat, and to purchase From The Doggerlanders, click on http://londonpoets.com

Thanks for visiting the talk show studio, Poetry Lovers. We’ll be back real soon….