15. 10. 2017 Paul Stephenson & Robert Peake will read new works from their new poetry books. Reading will begin 19hr at The Tennessee Bar = 2, rue André Mazet 75006 Paris, France

Paul Stephenson grew up in Cambridge. He studied modern languages and linguistics and then European Studies. He has spent many years living and working in France, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium. He completed the Jerwoord/Arvon mentoring scheme and has been published widely in magazines. His most recent pamphlet is ‘Selfie with Waterlilies‘ (Paper Swans Press, 2017). He has published two others: ‘Those People‘ (Smith/Doorstop, 2015) won the Poetry Business competition judged by Billy Collins while ‘The Days that Followed Paris‘ (HappenStance, 2016) was written in the wake of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. He has a diary/blog at www.paulstep.com. You can read a recent interview with Paul here: https://paperswans.co.uk/5-questions-paul-stephenson/

Valuation

My mother used to tell people
our house was a pub
in the eighteenth century.
I could see the cobwebbed crates

and woodworm-riddled benches.
Together among the pewter,
we believed in our public house,
conscious of the cavity beneath us.

My father, a true landlord,
would say to every visitor
as they got up to go and he didn’t,
The door is always open.

One day a man with a measure
came to price the place for sale.
Pointing needed doing.
There was no cellar.