'A Strong And Stiffly Worded Letter Should Do The Trick'

Dear war makers and war takers

Twitchy button pushers and mushroom cloud worshippers

Bomb botherers and gun polishers

Chemical weapon wielders and coup-cooers

Battle cry criers and army gatherers

Bullet loaders and knife sharpeners

Death collators, chief whips and spins and

Dear kings and dear lords and dear right honourables

To all the Dear Mr Presidents

And Dear Mr Prime ministers -

Thank you for taking some time to read this letter

I am writing to make a small request –

Please could you all just take a fucking day off

Go to the park, feed the ducks, read a book

Take a break and put down your war stirring spoons

Shush with your fighting talk

Stop with your itchy button pushy fingers

Quit being so trigger happy

Give your eye-for-an-eye campaign a rest

Just take some time out –

Do your laundry, water your plants, visit your mother

Pull a sickie, have a duvet day

Watch a whole season of Breaking Bad

But just stop.

  Read “A Strong and Stiffly Worded Letter” in full here

This poemfilm is also on my tumblr here

Autumn Equinox

Hello, how are you all? Here’s a little ditty I wrote last Sunday, whilst feeling the first damp chills of autumn and baking an apple and plum pie. Thanks for visiting this page, please scroll down for links to gigs and books and Springfield Road , Wishing you all a Happy Autumn Equinox - Lets go conkering!

Autumn Equinox

I hear the gentle padding of a fox

Old tomatoes sigh in my window box

I watch the swallows gather in flocks

The death of summer, Autumn equinox

 There’s a morning fog over Camden’s locks

Buy your woollen tights and thick boot socks

Soon time to turn back the clocks

The end of light, Autumn equinox

Pack away those summer frocks

I hear the death watch beetle knocks

Harvest moon, tide, crashes to the rocks

 Light the first fire, come close my love, its Autumn equinox.

(c) 2013. Salena Godden

  

Autumn Events and Festivals

Oct 11th-15th - Ubud Readers & Writers festival / Bali, Indonesia

Oct 28th - Unbound Books / Kings Place, London

Oct 26th - Patitude / The Fish Factory, London

Nov 8-10 - Aldeburgh Poetry Festival

Salena’s latest project, a memoir called Springfield Road, is being funded and produced by Unbound, an organisation that puts the power of publishing in the hands of the authors and readers. You can see a short film and read her crowd funding pitch here 

Discover the Springfield Road crowd funding journey on #tumblr here 

Listen to Springfield Road audio / radio archives on #mixcloud here

Kit Carless, Influx Press  
"I was disappointed to leave, aware that perhaps the ‘drinking town with a fishing problem’ was about to come alive at night and reveal itself to me. The deadbeat transformed into a hedonistic quest for liquored enlightenment – or perhaps I’ve just read too much of Salena’s work. Salena’s fictional Hastings is a seductive place and her writing is so powerful that her version of Hastings is now my version of Hastings.” Read more here

THE BOOK CLUB BOUTIQUE & INFLUX PRESS / HASTINGS BOOKLAUNCHPARTY

You are invited to a book launch and drinky party tomorrow September 14th in sunny Hastings Town with The Book Club Boutique & Influx Press launching ‘CONNECTING NOTHING WITH SOMETHING’ an anthology of coastal stories and poems https://www.facebook.com/events/164573690411440

Tomorrow we’ll be joined by Kit Caless - editor at Influx Press, host of the literature show ‘Mapping the Metropolis’ on London’s Resonance 104.4FM. We also bring you the fantastic voice of Sam Berkson Angrysam - writer, poet and raconteur, who’s debut collection ‘Life in Transit’ was published by Influx Press last year to great acclaim. Plus the brilliance of Christian Watson, Michelle Madsen and many more - Open mic slots are available, first come, first served, all kicking off at 7pm and hosted by me, Salena Godden author of ‘Under The Pier’ published by NASTY LITTLE PRESS and Springfield Road #crowdfunded with Unbound - both of which are very Hastings-y books!!

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AMAZINGFUNBOOKLAUNCHPARTY - UPDATE!!

Big thanks and love to all who made it out to BOOK CLUB BOUTIQUE & INFLUX PRESS LAUNCH PARTY / HASTINGS, great work from Gareth Rees, Kit Caless, Christian Watson Poet, Sam Berkson, Gary Budden and our special surprise guest, the one and only Emily Lloyd!! Your clue was in the picture above!!

Details of how to get hold of this beautiful coastal anthology at www.influxpress.com 

Emily’s memoir ‘Wish I Was There’ is available here

'Connecting Nothing with Something' – superb review via @hackneycitizen

"Contributors include Salena Godden whose ‘The Beirut of a Hastings Saturday Night’, an excerpt from her book Springfield Road, has a wonderful beat-like quality and is richly poetic – as you’d expect from this punk poet extraordinaire – with lines about “brackish, hard-nut fishermen” and the “murky green gruel” of the sea that the great Dylan Thomas himself (another child of the coast) would have been proud of…"

Thank you, wow, lovely review for Influx Press anthology!! Well done everyone!!

GIGS / Autumn 2013

Sept 7th - Free Verse Book Fair  with Bang Said The Gun

 Sept 12th - Bang Said The Gun  Anthology Launch Party at The Roebuck

Sept 14th - Book Club Boutique & Influx Press Launch Party in Hastings 

‘Connecting Nothing To Something’ / The Roomz, Hastings

Sept 19th - First Story Festival / Oxford

Sept 20th - Speaky Spokey / Brighton  

Oct 11th-15th - Ubud Readers & Writers festival / Bali

Oct 28th - Unbound Books / Kings Place 

Nov 8-10 - Aldeburgh Poetry Festival