'With Love, Grief and Fury' LIVE on The Adverb at Outspoken

NEW listen available now on BBC Radio 4

Salena Godden

Sep 01, 2024

Hello my lovelies,

Goodbye August! Hello September!

Just a quick post this morning to share a new listen…

The Verb at Outspoken on BBC Radio 4

This was a magic night. I'm so happy it was captured, recorded and broadcast on the BBC this weekend. Tune in on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds to hear this wonderful and uplifting poetry gig.

I performed some pieces I haven't performed before: two ‘With Love, Grief and Fury’ poems, a rousing version of ‘Tell Good People Good Things’. Plus the gentle and surreal 'Umbilical' and a glorious sharing of 'My Heart Is A Boat' with a united and soft singing chorus at the end, singing in solidarity.

I felt very emotional, vulnerable and privileged to share my new work and these particular pieces on this stage and in this space and time. I also think this is the first time that I have had a whole set aired on BBC radio - it isn’t often as a poet you have much time, let alone a whole set, if you listen to this you can really get a sense of the performance energy, the beautiful human connection in the heart of the room. My lovely mum, sister, friends and family are in the audience at The Purcell Room on the Southbank — So I particularly love this gig memory. Thank you to Ian McMillan and Joelle Taylor for the stunning introductions and my fellow star poets Imtiaz Dharker and Rachael Allen, thank you to all the brilliant Verb and Outspoken crew and the generous Southbank audience.

Highly recommend this one ... Thank you for sharing and tuning in!

The Adverb at OutSpoken, BBC Radio 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022cqc

show notes:

Inspiring words that connect us in difficult times; three outstanding poets take to the stage at Outspoken, one of the most exciting and innovative poetry nights in the world.

Imtiaz Dharker, poet, film-maker and national treasure is on first. She is a recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal and reads new poems from her collection 'Shadow Reader' - some of which explore the uncanny experience of having her 'shadow' read in order to predict her life-span.

Rachael Allen is a legendary poetry editor as well as a poet; she shares poems of scrupulous attention to a relationship breaking down. Her readings come from the narrative poem in her new book 'God Complex'.

Salena Godden's new book 'With Love Grief and Fury' is full of love poems for people and for the planet. She is a poet, memoirist and fiction writer. Her debut novel 'Mrs Death Misses Death' won the Indie Book Award for Fiction and the People’s Book Prize and was shortlisted for the British Book Awards and Gordon Burn Prize.

Outspoken was recorded at Southbank Centre, London, May 2024.

*Programme available for 28 days

The Adverb at OutSpoken, BBC Radio 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022cqc