Launch of 'Waldeinsamkeit' by Liam Porter

Join us on October 3rd at 19:00 for the virtual launch of Liam Porter's pamphlet 'Waldeinsamkeit' with readings from special guest poets Naoise Gale, Callan Waldron-Hall and Laura Jane Round.

Taking its title from the German word which loosely translates as 'the feeling of being alone in the woods' these are poems rooted in nature and place. At times mindful and present, at others, longing and mournful, Porter draws us through a range of experience and narrative – from forests, rivers and mountaintops to the boarded-up streets and schoolyards of North Liverpool.

Whether resting in "the gap between heartbeats / when man’s presence is no more" or in an 'other world of sunlight / where air is thin yet easier to breathe" Porter often brings clarity to the value of what is in front. Poetry as a lesson in presence.

But then there are darker poems, more regretful and longing, where a chick hatches from its stolen egg to 'drag its limp self across the floor" or where there is "cicatrix upon the skin of beech and oak".

But always there is a sense of hope at the centre of each poem and even the most haunting "opens up into foxglove, honeysuckle, bluebell."

Liam Porter is a writer, poet, and digital marketer from Merseyside, now residing in Chester. His poems have been published in 192, Independent Variable, Bloom and a range of other spaces. He was the editor and lead host of the 16th year of In The Red - LJMU's poetry open mic night and annual anthology. He hopes his writing will provide an essence of calm and reflection in what is a very hectic world.

Naoise Gale is a poet from West Yorkshire whose first pamphlet, ‘After the Flood Comes the Apologies’, will be published with Nine Pens in October 2021. She has been shortlisted in the Creative Futures Writers Award 2021 and longlisted in the Fish Poetry Prize 2021, as well as various other poetry and flash fiction competitions. Her work focuses on mental health, identity and addiction; it has been widely published in magazines such as Anti Heroin Chic, Versification and Opia Lit. She regularly attends Todmorden Writers’ Collective open mic nights. You can find her on twitter as @Naoisegale13.

Callan Waldron-Hall grew up in Leicestershire and now lives in Liverpool. His pamphlet, learning to be very soft, is published by Smith|Doorstop and won the Poetry Business New Poets Prize 18/19. His poems have appeared in Magma, The North, In the Red, Orris Root and Bath Magg. His project ‘more concerned with feeling than sense’ was published in Post-it: Independents Biennial Writers in Residence 2018.

Laura Jane Round is a writer and performance poet from the Black Country, England. She has a BA in Creative Writing from Liverpool John Moores University. Her debut pamphlet, 'The Coveted', was released by Cerasus Poetry in September 2021.