Here's the first of our new podcast series. The poem is by regular IS&T contributor Helen Pletts and was recorded in the Czech Republic, where she now lives. So, well done Helen for not only coping with the recording technology – but managing it in Czech. Helen added "The gentlemen who helped with the studio work were – in short – a bunch of darlings... patient and very very helpful... they winced slightly on one occasion when I let out a few obscenities... some words in that area seem to be universal... s**t in particular... this happened on one occasion when I became tongue-bound-up in a particular phrase... and then you realise how difficult it is to read out loud without making mistakes..."

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She's Singing

She's singing
in the tube-glare
(the main light dead to the show).
 
The words are slow-talking
above the beats,
and she is sounding more
than the song –
more soul in those pauper's notes
than stardom.
 
She lifts her heart up
from the two-cat audience
to the keep-corner spiders.
 
And the friends she hasn't
found yet, fall into the shadows
as she breathes her own heart
into the microphone.