{"id":2591,"date":"2023-09-08T11:29:18","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T10:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=2591"},"modified":"2023-09-14T12:07:26","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T11:07:26","slug":"open-book-reading-tuesday-3rd-october-organ-grinder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=2591","title":{"rendered":"Open Book reading Tuesday 3rd October: Organ Grinder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

http:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/2023\/09\/08\/forthcoming-event-tony-challis-and-shaun-belcher-tuesday-3-october-2023\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TONY CHALLIS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tony Challis has been writing poetry since the 1980s, as well as short stories and memoir. He has had poems published in magazines local to Nottingham, has had a poem commended in a national poetry competition, and is Chair of Nottingham Poetry Society. Tony is also keen on performing his poetry at spoken word events and at poetry gatherings. He is a member of a number of poetry writing groups within which he hones his skills. He now has a substantial  body of poetry written which he is keen to share with the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Quick Queerbashing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was only a five minute walk
across the main road to his ex.
Well-coiffed, in leather jacket,
fresh, smart and bouncing.
It was on the way back that it happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Times come when the search for words is dry,
when it is hard to maintain a dribble of chat.
He could not reply, only smile with his eyes.
The frame firmly placed over his face prevented
replies; bolted in place to help his jaw heal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had to keep a conversation going, talk
about my doings, mutual friends, shows\u2026.
He could write brief notes on paper, just.
If I had had a companion there might\u2019ve been banter,
cross talk, jokes shared to liven his time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had read reports, how he had walked
in amongst a group of five, innocent,
blind to their baseball bats, uncomprehending
of their anger, of how they had failed to find
a victim at the hill-top water tower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He would do; he was clearly queer.
They gifted him a metal plate in his leg,
a problem kneeling to unhelpful gods.
Did their own hearts scare them as they struck?
I recall the gratitude in his warm gaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

SHAUN BELCHER<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaun Belcher is a multimedia artist and poet, originally from Oxford, now a retired teacher in Nottingham.
He has written poetry since his mid 20\u2019s,  influenced by his rural upbringing as well as wider themes of dislocation and global technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He will be reading from new volume SUBSTITUTE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/2023\/09\/08\/forthcoming-event-tony-challis-and-shaun-belcher-tuesday-3-october-2023\/ TONY CHALLIS Tony Challis has been writing poetry since the 1980s, as well as short stories and memoir. He has had poems published in magazines local to Nottingham, has had a poem commended in a national poetry competition, and is Chair of Nottingham Poetry Society. Tony is also keen on performing his poetry at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6nhh-FN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2591"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2620,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2591\/revisions\/2620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}