We've had a month off our Not A Bad Word poetry event and now we're raring to go with a completely new and original bunch of poets and performers. Tues 22nd Sept 2026 is going to be full of comedy, so make sure you don't miss it.
That said, I must tell you about the radiologist who administered my MRI scan today (never fear, nothing life-threatening) at the North Middlesex Hospital. She was Portuguese, and somehow our conversation turned to poetry (quelle surprise eh?). And then, she recited to me in clear and musical Portuguese, a Portuguese poem by an apparently famous Portuguese poet. I didn't understand a word of course, but I could hear the passion and the music. So of course I had to dig out from my rucksack my latest poetry collection - Catching the Breeze and she started (this was in the MRI room before I was laid out for the procedure) to read the title poem. So of course, I had to take it from her and read it out to her, in true performance-poet style. She was (dare I say it modestly) entranced and may even turn up at our event next Tuesday.
Gosh, I must tell you about that MRI. I had to take out my hearing aids, which meant they then had to use sign language to tell me what to do - and speak slowly and clearly to my face so I could understand. I was lying on my back, a prisoner being slid into a full-body, great big ring thing with my head pinioned with large headphones and hearing blockers. I could still hear the bloody noises that damn machine makes, though: the whirring and knocking and banging, in spite of it all.
But there's a new innovation since the last time I had an MRI years ago. Above my head in my eye line was a moving video of a coral reef and all its glorious multicoloured fishes in an ocean scene plus dolphins and turtles. I was at once transported (in memory) back in time to a few years ago in Cape Town, when I took a trip out from the Waterfront on a large white catamaran and for part of our two hour trip we were followed by a school of dolphons, diving and playing around us - what magic.
I was entranced and distracted for a while by this colourful scene ... except the film was on a ten-minute loop and by the time I was watching it for the third time, my attention was wavering a little. I was lying there for 30 minutes, apparently.
Anyway, I digress somewhat from this reminder that after a month off in August, NOT A BAD WORD is returning next Tuesday, 22nd September, to our new venue, which we're now settling well into - Jam in a Jar, Green Lanes, N8, run by two music and the arts enthusiasts - Ant and Naz. You'll find Jam in a Jar at 3 stops on the 29 bus down from Turnpike Lane tube station - a 10-minute bus ride from Crouch End on the 41 bus. My becoming-long-term-temporary co-host, Christine Vial, will host one half, and I'll host the other. And we have a really different and interesting line-up this time - from our own regular haiku-loving comic poet Alan Wolfson (who also used to run a poetry event in Crouch End), to two new faces - new to Not a Bad Word, but not new to North London - the very tall, 6 foot 6", Andy James - actor, poet and now stand-up comic, who actually started up a few years ago- the well known blues and rock venue Moors Bar, in Park Rd, Crouch End , sadly missed. And the other guy is an Irishman - Brian Kelly, who also runs a poetry event which runs regularly at the All Good Bookshop in Turnpike Lane called Insurgent Press.
I hope to see you all there at Not a Bad Word next Tuesday for a fun evening.
