Waiting for Godden: NEW! LIVEwire video 'That's All We Had Dad'

That's All We Had, Dad

Excerpt from Springfield Road

Featured on LIVEwire album, recorded live at Bookslam, Clapham Grand
NEW LIVEwire film now on youtube: 'That's All We Had, Dad'

I searched everywhere in the universe and in everything you touched in my world for your scent, for flakes of your skin, for the strands of hair, of each minute of that one afternoon. Every tiny triviality, like water retaining memory, seeping through each crevice of those few hours we spent together. That afternoon became a shrine, a cave. I stroked the walls of those few hours with all five senses, second by second. I took a stick and scratched our names there and every minute detail I daubed and highlighted with paints. I felt the coolness and the heat of those walls against my cheeks. I can still smell that day; when I think of it I inhale some form of dust, it sticks in the back of my throat. I can still summon the sensation of waiting for you Dad, of having you and losing you. Those few hours are an animal carcass. I devoured all its tender flesh. I boiled the bones to make a glue soup to keep us together and I slept in the hide of the beast to dream of you. All we had was that one day when you appeared from nowhere and then you went again. For those moments I looked into your eyes, I saw something I now understand was regret or guilt. I also believe I also saw love, and that was all we ever had, Dad.

NEW LIVEwire VIDEO

Nymphs and Thugs are thrilled to present this stunning new video from Idle Work Factory, featuring a live audio recording of Salena Godden's 'That's All We Had, Dad'.

The audio is taken from the #LIVEwire album, which was shortlisted for The Poetry Society's Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry.

The audio performance was recorded at Book Slam, Clapham Grand. The video was filmed, directed and edited by Jordon Scott Kennedy and was shot on location in Hastings, East Sussex in November 2016.

'That's All We Had, Dad' is an short excerpt from Salena's childhood memoir 'Springfield Road' (Unbound), which is available from http://salenagodden.bigcartel.com/

LIVEwire is out now on Special Edition CD, and is available to pre-order on 2LP gatefold double vinyl. There's also a beautiful full-colour zine, t-shirts and pin badges.

There will be a Nymphs and Thugs UK tour this spring. For dates and information please visit nymphsandthugs.net or contact Matt Abbott on matt@nymphsandthugs.net