Steve Pottinger

Poets, Prattlers and Pandemonialists

Stay Up Your Own End

Stay Up Your Own End - Walsall

Over the next two months, Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists will be running a series of online poetry activities across the Black Country. ‘Stay Up Your Own End’ will take place on Monday evenings, on Facebook, with the Walsall event happening on Monday 8th June. 

Anyone can submit a poem. First-time writers, regular scribblers, and all those in between. On Monday 25th May we’ll post a prompt by Walsall poet Richard Archer in this group. This will, hopefully, stimulate your own ideas for a piece about some aspect of life in your area of Walsall. You’ll have two weeks to work on it..

All the poems we receive will be posted by us on our Facebook page on 8th June. One poem will be chosen as ‘judge’s favourite’ and secure a £25 prize for the author, plus the opportunity to work with us on creating a video of the piece for our grand finale event on July 20th.

We want to hear from as many different Walsall voices as possible, and – of course – everyone’s welcome to take part in the event on June 8th, either as contributors or audience.

All events will be hosted on our Facebook page, which you will find here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1293834050753852/ (we generally respond to requests to join the group the same day)

Blow are details from PPP's blog page

https://www.pandemonialists.co.uk/up-your-end/

The last few years have seen a huge increase in the number of regular poetry events in the Black Country, but with the introduction of lockdown in response to Covid-19 all of them are now cancelled for the foreseeable future. We wanted to do something to address that, and we’re delighted to announce that we’ve been commissioned by Creative Black Country to run a series of online poetry activities across our region.

‘Stay Up Your Own End’ will be a series of six online events, each providing a platform for poets of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities to share their work. They’ll be held on Monday evenings on our Facebook page, and for each one we’ll be encouraging people to write about some aspect of life in their part of the Black Country.

We’re starting with an event focussed on Walsall, and following on with evenings centred on Dudley, Sandwell, Wolverhampton, Stourbridge, before culminating in a grand finale on 20th July. At each event a ‘judge’s favourite’ will be chosen and will secure a £25 prize for the author, plus the opportunity to work with us on creating a video of their piece for our sixth and final event, which will feature the five winning poems as well as videos from each of our five judges.
The poetry prompt for Walsall went live on Monday 25th May and was created for us by local poet Richard Archer. Over the next five weeks other established regional poets will provide prompts for their part of the Black Country, and we’re grateful to Rick Sanders, Roy McFarlane, Kuli Kohli, and Heather Wastie for working with us on the events for Dudley, Sandwell, Wolverhampton, and Stourbridge respectively.

Anyone can submit a poem to these events. First-time writers, regular scribblers, and all those in between. Whether you’re a keen poet or just fancy dipping your toes in the poetry water, this is for you. And – of course – everyone’s welcome to take part in the events, either as contributors or audience. They’ll all be hosted on our Facebook page, which you will find here.

Richard’s prompt for the Walsall event is below. If you want to take part, email your finished poem to us at poetsprattlerspandemonialists@gmail.com by midday on Sunday June 7th for the chance to win a £25 prize. Our thanks to those people who’ve already sent their poems in – the rest of you, get yer skates on!

“Impressions about a place can be formed from any contact, long or short. What is your take on Walsall? Good or bad? How has living in, discovering, or visiting Walsall had an impact on your outlook? What impression has Walsall made on you during these times of lockdown and isolation?

The UK has many impressions of Walsall, some good:
The Art Gallery , The beautiful Arboretum

some bad:
Walsall obesity crisis, Gang violence in Walsall

and some odd:
The Giant Walsall Sinkhole, The Walsall Anarchists Bomb Plot

What is your impression of our borough?”