Beth Davies

What a joy tonight it was @otsfestival.bsky.social #Sheffield for the #poetry celebration of 40 years of #TheNorth from @poetrybusiness.bsky.social. Wonderful poetry, poets and readings and I have my beautiful book from @bethdaviespoet.bsky.social to indulge in.

Thank you for coming and for buying my book! Glad you had a good time 😊

Beth Davies → Our Favourite Places – Sheffield Culture Guide "Everybody’s life is worthy of poetry." The Sheffield Poet Laureate for 2024–2026 talks to us about creative community, accessibility in poetry, and the potential for inspiration in everything.

"Everybody’s life is worthy of poetry." In our latest Meet the Locals interview, Sheffield Poet Laureate for 2024–2026 @bethdaviespoet.bsky.social talks to us about creative community, accessibility in poetry, and the potential for inspiration in everything > ourfaveplaces.co.uk/meet-the-loc...

Oh and it's free to come along! You just need to grab a ticket at the link above!

On Tuesday 10th June, I'm performing at the first ever Culture Club, a new networking event for people across Sheffield's Culture Sector to meet and connect. I'm looking forward to sharing my words, hearing music from Sound Café, and talking to fellow creatives! www.eventbrite.com/e/culture-cl...

You will never "find" time to write. You have to take it. Steal it. Defend it like a dragon hoarding gold. Like a mama bear on cocaine. Like a sleep-deprived goblin who just discovered caffeine. Take your time. Fight for it. Hiss if necessary. 🐍

It's the poet equivalent of someone saying a weird phrase and someone else saying that it sounds like a band name, or that you could put it on a mug or a t-shirt. All the time people are saying combinations of words that could be given that kind of emphasis.

Genuinely love hanging out with poets and saying "Title of your next pamphlet" or "That's a poem" anytime anyone says a vaguely unusual phrase or tells an interesting story. It's like, maybe there is poetry in everything!

This past week I've been walking around muttering my own poems under my breath in public - a sure sign of an exciting event coming up! 😄 Looking forward to performing my work in a more suitable context than the bus stop at @youngidentitymcr.bsky.social's One Mic Stand slam tonight.

If you're not already subscribed to Gregory's podcast The Poems We Made Along The Way, you're missing out on warm and insightful conversations with the likes of Helen Mort, Roger Robinson, Ella Frears, and many more amazing poets! Subscribe now and you can catch up before Season 3 😊 tr.ee/MS3R7Y1hKV

Ah, everyone has a 'poetry voice', what matters is that you make it YOURS.

Wise words Jay!

Even if I've never fully moved away from my default 'Poetry Voice' when performing my work, that way of experimenting with other ways of performing a poem definitely made a real impact on me. There is an infinite number of voices and intonations and tones in which poetry can be shared.

While practicing my poems for One Mic Slam (Manchester, 19th Feb), I'm thinking back to a brilliant workshop years ago where @shortestwitch.bsky.social and @jayhulmepoet.bsky.social got us to recite our poems like stand-up comics or circus ringleaders or campfire storytellers or classroom teachers.

Wrote a poem inspired by an article about a 9 year-old winning the European Seagull Impersonation Championships. Now I'm writing about Florence Shufflebottom, who has both an incredible name and a wild lifestory - sharpshooter and snake charmer who ran a bingo hall after retiring from the circus.

I've recently decided to start writing more poems about random facts that strike my interest or send me into Wikipedia rabbit holes. I'm operating under the philosophy: If it's worth ranting about in the pub, then it's worth a poem - or at least an attempt at one.

Excited to be competing at One Mic Stand poetry slam in a few weeks! 🤩

In order to get written, the poems must be more interesting than a divorced dad desperately trying to get his young daughter to tell him what she's done since he last saw her, or two men having an intense theological debate involving a deeply questionable analogy between alcohol and abortion.

Lately I've been spending more time going to cafés to write. The only drawback is the occupational hazard of my own nosiness. The poems compete for my attention with a small child running in circles squeaking like a dolphin, or two teenagers passionately snogging in Costa on a Sunday lunchtime.

Whether it's for a poem, a letter, a work email, or a crossword clue, you can bet I'll be going to thesaurus dot com. I have been known to look things up in a thesaurus when writing a text to a friend. I used thesaurus dot com when writing this post about thesaurus dot com.

Grateful for my good friend thesaurus dot com today. I love synonyms. I love words that share similar meanings with other words but never overlap exactly. I love that I can think to myself "what's a word that's like ... but not ...?" and an abundance of possibilities can be waiting there for me.

I adored this tragic poem from @poetbex.bsky.social in the current @rialtopoetry.bsky.social