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.