ZOOMING IN MAY 2026

On May 5th we got together again with our poet friends under the aegis of ‘The 1000 Monkeys’ to listen to and read their poems. The session confirmed, as it does every month, the injustice of the title of this group, that we set up more than ten years ago, This is no random collection of playful primates equipped with keyboards and charged with recreating all of Shakespeare’s works given an eternity in which to do it. As always I emerged from the hour of readings feeling refreshed and hopeful, buoyed by the creativity of our talented friends.
Each month we can only invite a small number of the hundred or so poets who have given us permission to send them emails about the events; each zoom is open for about an hour. This month we invited fourteen of them to share their work, of whom two had personal and technical reasons for not taking part (but we’ll invite them again next month.) Everyone on our database received the link and thirteen of them came as listeners.
We enjoyed readings by:
​Gary Day (3.07 on the video); Evanthe Blandy (6.21); Aaron Barschak (10.47); Ray Pool (16.05); Anne Symons (21.00); Ranald Barnicot (26.00); Simon Williams (30.30); Jim Conwell (34.33); Daphne Milne (38.36); David Bleiman (42.30); Barry Smith (49.40) and Jenny Brown (56.00)
Dónall was ill this month, having had a difficult chemo session on Monday and Tuesday, so for the first time I was in sole charge. I ended the evening feeling a lot better than when it began. Dónall has recovered from his low point now and is well enough to enjoy the video.
Some of the listeners will be invited to read on June 2nd, and there will be some ‘open mic’ invitations sent out in the week beforehand.
If you would like to join the group, just email your request to Janice at dempseyandwindle@gmail,com. Then you’ll receive the invitations and links to the Zoom events each month, in your inbox.