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02 Joe Thomas and Christina Thatcher

33m · Dickens and Quips - Poetry Pod · 21 Sep 00:00

Welcome to the second episode of Dickens and Quips!

This week we have Joe Thomas on the show and I shall be reading from How to Carry Fire by Christina Thatcher.

Find Sam at @joefishthomas on Twitter and Insta

Christina Thatcher is @writetoempower on Twitter.

We are at

Twitter: @dickensandquips

Instagram: @dickensandquips

Email: [email protected]

Prompt for this week is "fire extinguisher" and you don't have to be an established poet to submit a poem.

Featured poems:

An Improper Kindness

Worth Telling

What If

All available in How to Carry Fire by Christina Thatcher.

Supermarket by Dee Dickens

I’m on the floor in the grocery store

howling.

Great globbing

sobbing

snotty trails on my jumper.

Everyone has been so nice.

It’s just that

my brave face is so damn tired.

My arms ache from wiping their tears.

My throat burns with words unsaid.

I make tea and hope they

don't taste the salt water.

Supermarket guy comes over to ask,

Is everything alright?

No, supermarket guy, everything is not alright.

I want Yorkshire pudding,

and I can’t find the batter mix.

He’s smiling, but his eyes say confused,

there's a tilt of a head

from a passing old woman telling me

I should just make my own.

I can’t remember how.

I don’t know the ingredients.

I can’t focus on anything

but the emptiness of my belly.

Except that I need to have

Yeast.

To know that something inside me is still alive.

Scrimshaw by Eley Williams

Imaginary friend: by Joe Thomas

I.

I’m an imaginary friend

that’s been thought into existence

or maybe you wished hard enough.

I don’t know. You tell me.

I’m the madman who fell from the sky,

and before anyone says it, I’m not him.

Mr love of my life and Mr man of my dreams

aren’t nearly chaotic enough.

Mr Right’s entrance runs too smoothly

to come down to Earth with a crash.

How boring.

No, I’m not here to be your first choice

but I know what

“I like you…

a lot…

like more than a friend…

but not…

you get me?”

means when I hear it.

Don’t worry. It worked.

I’ve been doing this

long enough to know

we wouldn’t be here

talking right now if it hadn’t.

II.

If you’re interested

here are the rules.

Take food as a given.

If you stalk my social media,

if I find a heart react

on a selfie I took with my cat

because I’m in the picture

you’re doing it wrong.

If you scroll past my pictures,

“Oh my god!

He’s so cute!

I LOVE him!”

and you didn’t mean the dog

but come out with “I want in,”

you’re brave, I’ll give you that much…

If you try to make me choose

“Who is it going to be?

Friend 1

Or friend 2?”

when ‘universal’

by definition means:

“BOTH OF YOU.”

I’m sorry,

it’s not going to work out.

III.

In return, I can only give you a hug

one you can still feel long after it’s finished

one that clings on and will not let you go.

If I do it right, it should squeeze

every “You’re not as good as you think

you are” thought until they pop

I write you a pretentious poem

which, at the end of the day,

is just a glorified shitpost

that I crafted to look like a love letter

because I don’t know how else to say it.

And yes, I do it better than most

of your real friends ever could

We keep our streak going.

We let months go by

between conversations

which last for two messages,

an unspoken “You didn’t have to answer

but thank you for coming back.”

No, being left on read is not rude,

we haven’t run out of small talk

It’s an electric “Until next time

Love from an imaginary friend

who was lucky enough to come to life.”

Prompt for this week is Fire Extinguisher

The episode 02 Joe Thomas and Christina Thatcher from the podcast Dickens and Quips - Poetry Pod has a duration of 33:03. It was first published 21 Sep 00:00. The cover art and the content belong to their respective owners.

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12.5 Announcement

Hello everyone. As is said in the announcement, I have been quite unwell over the last few weeks, so am going to take a rest and go on hiatus until the new year.

Thank you so much for all your support so far, I am grateful to each and every one of you.

Have a great December and I will see you all in January.

Make good choices, write great poetry.

email: [email protected]

twitter: @dickensandquips

insta: @dickensandquips

Dee:

twitter: @thepontypoet

insta: @thepontypoet

facebook: facebook.com/deedickenswriter

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This week we have a Hannah Edge special on the show and I shall be reading from her upcoming collection Those Days, These Days along with a bit of Anne Sexton.

You can preorder Hannah's ebook here and I will update these show notes when the paperback is available for preorder too!

Find Hannah at

observeandmuse_ehjee on Insta

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We are at

Twitter: @dickensandquips

Instagram: @dickensandquips

Email: [email protected]

Prompt for this week is "Football" and you don't have to be an established poet to submit a poem.

11 Connor Sansby and Hannah Lowe

Welcome to the eleventh episode of Dickens and Quips!

It is a bumper episode this week with some juicy language but it is well worth listening to us go down some amazing poetry rabbit holes.

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Find Connor at Connor Sansby Wordstuff on Facebook

@whiskybeards on Insta

@whiskybeards on Twitter

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Hannah Lowe can be found here

And on twitter @hannahlowepoet

We are at

Twitter: @dickensandquips

Instagram: @dickensandquips

Email: [email protected]

Prompt for this week is "all bears are gud boisl" and you don't have to be an established poet to submit a poem.

Featured collections:

Chick by Hannah Lowe

So You Want To Be a Writer by Charles Bukowski

10 Seterah Ebrahimi and Carrie Etter

Welcome to the tenth episode of Dickens and Quips!

This week we have Seterah Ebrahimi on the show and I shall be reading from Imagined Sons by Carrie Etter

You can buy Seterah's pamphlet In My Arms here

You can buy Carrie Etter's Imagined Sons here

Carrie Etter can be found here twitter.com/carrie_etter

We are at

Twitter: @dickensandquips

Instagram: @dickensandquips

Email: [email protected]

Prompt for this week is "I wait and wonder" and you don't have to be an established poet to submit a poem.

Featured collections/poems:

Imagined Sons by Carrie Etter

Skeleton by Rosemary McLeish

Line that makes you go OOOOOH!

Imagined Sons 29: The Friend (Part 4)

“I press my lips to each letter of his name”

09 Dervla O'Brien and Joe Thomas

Welcome to the ninth episode of Dickens and Quips!

This week we have Dervla O'Brien on the show and I shall be reading from Cake, Liberty and Other Inexplicable Phenomena by Joe Thomas

Find Dervla at

DervlaOBrien on Insta

DervlaOBrien on Twitter

The festival she was talking about is accepting proposals here

Joe Thomas can be found @Joefishthomas on twitter and insta and Joe Thomas Writer on Facebook

You can buy his book Here

We are at

Twitter: @dickensandquips

Instagram: @dickensandquips

Email: [email protected]

Prompt for this week is "sticky floors" and you don't have to be an established poet to submit a poem.

Thank you to Roger Waldron for your poem this week.

Invite

inviting me round

to talk overyour

world beating veggie lasagna

you apologise for the kitchen

carefuldon’t stick to the floor

we talk about

being married

that B&B in Scarborough

where they askedif we wanted

dessertwhich turned out

to be Pears in sticky Rice Pudding

you asked

if we’d ever be a pair

againyou asked if I would like

puddingaftersetc

I declined all 3careful not to stick

to your floorwondering

what makesyou think like that

Featured poets:

Paige Lewis

Sarah Kay

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