Poet #2 – ROB A. MACKENZIE
Join Rob A. Mackenzie, Clare Best, Isobel Dixon, Alan Gillis, Eliza Kentridge, and Tessa Berring at Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery, on Wednesday 17 August, 7pm for a prompt 7:30 reading start, to finish at 9:30 – 3 poets in each half, with a short interval for wine and book buying. The evening is free, but donations are welcome. Sign up on Eventbrite or Facebook.
The Fruitmarket Gallery is right by Waverley Station: 45 Market Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1DF - View Map
The poets will read new work and from recent collections, and the night will include some original poems from the poets inspired by the work of Damián Ortega in the gallery’s current exhibition. Damián Ortega is one of the most prominent artists of the new Mexican generation and for The Fruitmarket Gallery’s summer exhibition, Ortega has made new sculptures, mostly from clay, focusing on how the forces of nature – wind, water, earth and fire – act on the earth both independently of and in relationship to humans.
Here’s an introduction to another of our six poets:
About Rob:
Rob A. Mackenzie is from Glasgow and lives in Leith. He has published two pamphlets and two full collections, the most recent of which was The Good News (Salt, 2013). He is reviews editor of Magma.
Wedding
No flowers, as if my bride were saving
herself for a funeral to come. She carried
plastic posies acquired at a local garage,
a last-second panic, and walked the aisle
like a plank, with drunk, flat-footed certainty.
Pepsi or Coke? An exchange of mystery
ring-pulls took place, bridesmaids skin tight
and self-conscious, congregation mouthing
Groovy Kind of Love to a jumping CD.
No photographs. No video. Corned beef
sandwiches proved themselves reliably
irresistible at the reception. No kissing.
No presents, we had insisted, but guests
brought avocado kitchen clocks all the same,
batteries winding down, as if everyone knew
the honeymoon suite was twin-bedded with
panoramic views of short-term disturbances.
‘Wedding’ was first published in New Walk magazine.
And come and hear more at the Fruitmarket Gallery!