Kevin Heslop

Kevin Heslop is a twenty year old writer-in-the-making, currently attending Western University as an English major. He is heavily influenced by the poetry and prose of Charles Bukowski and Ernest Hemingway, the philosophical works of Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Neitzsche, the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso and the music of J.S. Bach and Miles Davis. When not reading or writing, Kevin is either playing the drums, drawing with an 8B pencil and/or feeling distressed about not writing, at which times he often waits patiently in...



the garage 


the flannel blanket is thin and grey and tossed and disheveled lying

weeping upon the wooden chair with one shorter leg.

two blue garbage bins with crooked headpieces languish in the corner.

the garage doors are quiet and gaping like observant militia and

nestled in the shelving on the wall are browning gasoline cans

half empty and waiting for spring.

the cigarette butts in the ashtray are standing at odd angles

as if having maintained their positions at the conclusion of an interpretive dance

crumpled and embellishing the romance of their fate.

the metal structure of the withdrawing mechanism bends smoothly and decisively

each moment hanging with the threat of animation.

it is winter and the cool light slouches in

bordering the garage doors in soft clumps.

the naked bulb buzzes like a luminescent bee

hanging in midflight

hovering callously in the face of the

light switch.



For more from Kevin Heslop, his blog,  thechainsmokingpoet

Out of our first six events, four have seen between 45 and 50 attendees each, including the last three. 

The mix of music, poetry, food, drinks, the Greek atmosphere and good conversation makes for a great evening, and people look forward to returning. 

We have a place for established poets to read, and another, the open mic, for everyone, both the established poets and the amateurs like myself. 

There is a third group in London, some of whom also come to the open mic. They are the poets who are too young to be established, but who are also far too serious about their poetry to be seen as dabblers. These days they are finding the paths forward very difficult to negotiate, partly due to their numbers and the very long waits at the doors to the few serious journals that accept works by new poets. 

We would like to become useful in some way to these poets, in hopes we can help prevent them from completely giving up like so many have before them. We're actively thinking about this, and any suggestions from anyone would be welcome. A possible route for us might be workshops, one of which we have just begun. Workshops are a form of community, and nothing provides motivation as well as being part of a community. 

More on this later.

Our second season is just beginning to take shape. So far, we have featured poets for the first two months and will fill in the rest of the season shortly after the March open mic. 

FRANK BELTRANO will kick off the season on September 4th. And JAN FIGURSKI has agreed to be our second feature, on October 2nd.