The Pop Up Anthology

Our first foray into editing an anthology proved harder work than we anticipated, but we’re proud and pleased with the result. The Pop Up Anthology 2013 includes poems by 51 of the poets who have read at the Spoken Word night at the Bar des Arts, Guildford, that Dónall hosts once a month.

The content of the book is predictably varied, for it includes work from writers and performers from far and wide who have come to read as feature poets, as well as the Surrey poets who have loyally come to read each month so regularly and enthusiastically.

We’re already looking forward to editing the Pop Up Anthology 2014, and planning its London launch at the Poetry Café in October 2014. We'll have another exciting launch party at the Bar des Arts that month, too. The party for the 2013 launch was a night to remember!

We’re looking forward to another year of Spoken Word at the Bar des Arts, on the third Tuesday of each calendar month, and to meeting and listening to more talented guest features and open mic readers. We're so grateful to all our contributors for their participation in the Pop Up Anthology 2013.

Here's a poem from the book, by one of our Surrey poets, Joanna Harker.

When I am walking

Venus and the moon were brilliant
Up in the dark half of the sky
As I walked westwards through pale grass
Still dripped with the rain long swept away


I was walking to you when it first rained.
I was walking to you as I walked round my day
To my bus, to my work, through that city.
Now I see the whole milky way
Arching above me; lustrous; alive


As I walk in the dark with the stars as my guide. 

The moon is still brilliant, but now the whole sky is dark

And I search for your shadow as I move through the park

I am walking to meet you at the end of your day
I am walking to you, I am walking, always.


© Joanna Harker 2013