A Poet Walks Into A Bar...

I'm going to apologise in advance for how brief this particular entry is likely to be, I've been coerced into doing a little spoken word set down at the Banshee Labyrinth open mic night so after cobbling together some material I've really been left rather short of time.

Admittedly, I was a little skeptical at first - it's always been a personal sore point to be the poet in amongst the musicians and often your entry to the stage, accompanied by 'Will now be reciting some stuff for you', is the cue for everybody else to go to the bar.

Fortunately, I got an omen when I skipped off for a smoke a few minutes ago.

I say 'omen' - it's more like 'totally weird coincidence and yes, I might be grasping at straws so I don't simply resort to vodka to get me on stage' but in my book, it'll do.

Anybody who hasn't got the memo yet, I'm reliving an old obsession with Harley Quinn...that's basically been the gist of the last three days worth of blogging.

When I went down to the garages I noticed a playing card on the ground (as though somebody had just slipped it through the bars), now I smiled to myself and though 'Wouldn't it be funny if...', weebled over, picked it up and whaddya know; The Joker.

So, it's decided, I'm just going to risk looking like a complete arse and take all opportunities to get my work out there in every possible way that I can - if I can raise a few giggles, eyebrows or expectations of what being a 'poet' actually means then it'll be worth the funny looks.

I'm still nervous as hell. Everything I'm performing tonight has either been finished in the last four hours or never seen the sweaty lights of a stage so there's a pretty large margin for it all going tits up.

Just for that reason, anybody who's in Edinburgh and free for a little knees up should make their way down - my atrocious five minutes aside there's set to be some incredibly gifted people performing and the booze is cheap.

What better way to kick off a week.

Annie.

<3