Thanks to Michaela Ridgway who runs and compere’s the amazing Pighog poetry nights at the Redroaster another lovely ‘Pighog Plus. This one was the last one until September, but they certainly went out with a metaphorical bang. ‘Pighog Plus’ means that Pighog has invited poets from other small presses, as well as their own poets to share their work. 
John Davies the director of Pighog Press.
On this occasion it was Caleb Klaces from ‘Eyewear’ publishing. He was followed by Martin Myers ready to launch his new wonderful Pighog pamphlet. It has a lovely design of a windmill on the cover to tempt us into his countryside poems.
Caleb bowled us over reading from his book ‘Bottled Air’. As a concession to visiting Brighton, he said he would start with some coastal poems but what a poem! ‘Cheering the relief boat’ is in two parts and about the Shackleton expedition. Not only does he create in his imagination compelling images in part 1, but in part 11 links these with a visit he made to an exhibition of photographs about the trip, and an encounter with a woman at the bus stop on the way home.
This guy has compassion and humour, is well read and well travelled, and the range and quality of his work truly inspirational.
There were poems about ancient funerary customs in Egypt, Istanbul and one about a man meeting with his wife after a long separation. A compelling poetry collection that persuaded several in this audience to buy the book as soon as the interval arrived.
Martin Myers launching his pamphlet in the Pighog Sussex Series read several of his 
poems set in the country and by the sea ‘ a tour of surreal and disturbing collisions of the urban and the rural, of past and present, of public and personal and of conventions and their subversions’. Martin read his evocative poems with passion, confirming that Pighog had indeed picked another ‘winner’.
With just two published poets tonight, there was more time for the’open mic’ poets. We had poems on a wide range of subjects in very different styles. However nervous some had claimed to be when putting their names down, all signs of nerves vanished when they shared their wonderful worlds of originality and creativity. Here are some of them.
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