Canal – poetry for two voices will take place at the Poetry Café on Thursday 22 March.  What was the rationale behind creating a reading equally shared by two speakers?

An early short poem of mine, Iran 1979, had always been intended to have a different voice reading the last stanza, and a more recent, longer poem, Fear in the Age of Optimism, was intentionally written with a second voice making contributions throughout the piece. This was performed very well by two actors at a Live Canon event last December. This led me to look at other poems which would lend themselves to this approach, and to write new material for the same purpose.  

I also wanted to present a reading not just of my own poetry but that of other writers I really liked. Having two speakers was, I thought, a good way of presenting a substantial amount of work while keeping a variety of tone as well as content.  

In Amy Neilson Smith I found the ideal co-performer. She is a trained actress, with a great speaking voice, and a very good poet in her own right. Thus the content of the evening started to take shape: my poetry, Amy’s poetry and favourite poems from the canon. Still, I felt another element was needed. I’ve been to a good many poetry events where I have zoned out due to the weight of so much spoken word. Poetry is an intense utterance, after all, and a poetry evening does not usually have an engaging narrative arc to hold the audience’s attention. I decided intervals of music, appropriate to the tone and content of the evening would allow the audience necessary moments of repose. Oliver Janes is a highly accomplished clarinettist and offered wonderful short pieces by composers such as Krzystof Penderecki and Elliott Carter.

Thus the evening will be more a performance than a recital with the material presented in a coherent developing fashion with no introductions or explanations - I am suspicious of poetry which needs to be explained anyway - and the musical interludes serving as comment and chapter heading. The audience will be asked not to applaud between the different pieces. With an interval, the evening should last between one and a half and two hours.

Golly. I hope it works.