Hugh Fox Reading ‘Since’ from Broadsheet 12

Hugh Fox reads his poem ‘Since’, published in The Flea’s Broadsheete 12.

THE FLEA’s Birth-daye Bumper Broadsheet Pub-Crawle

In the Merry Month of May, 2011, THE FLEA will attain his Second Birthday; maugré the vicissitudes of Dame Fortuna, and the desuetudes occasion’d by the Agenbyte of Fleawitte; THE FLEA having so thrived & swyv’d & prosper’d, & swolne moreover, that the once-wee Bug-ger, inflated to this preposterous Girth of Poetick Rotundity, his belly stuff’d with verses Physickal & Metaphysickall, is more aptly address’d as Sir Cumference, than as Sir FLEA!

This Fal-staffe of Fleas, this Ralph Roister Doister of Suttle Inter-netted Verse, this Jiggynge Hobbie-Horse-Pegasus of Poetry, accordingly proposes to celebrate his Happy Anniversarie by heading to

THE MERMAID TAVERN,

or, 

Down the Pub!

THE FLEA therefore invites the Canting Crewe, the Poets, Satyrists, Wittes, Gallants, Fine Ladies, Dells & Doxies, & sundrie divers Revellers, to join it in a Poetic Pub-Crawl to THE MERMAID TAVERN, for a BUMPER BIRTHDAY BROAD-SHEETE, or, it may be, BROAD-SIDE. Thus you may supply Yr Arrogant & Vnruly Editor with select verses compos’d to fit the occasion, on such topicks as:

Ale, Beer, Quaffing, Rollicking, Toasting, Ducke-drunkenness, Lager-Loutes, lustfull Meeting of shining Eyes across a crowded Bar, Wine, Absinthe, Pub-crawling, Pub-brawling, Arrest by the Watch for Drunk & Disorderly, Absinthe, the Heady Intoxication of Love, a Round or two for a Pound or two, Chundering, Beer-goggles, Lost Week-endes, Remorseful Hang-overs;or whatever invention the Poetic Imagination can devize to suit this Bacchanalian & Celebratory theme; and moreover in any mood, from boisterous to maudlin, as may seem apt to the inspiration of the Poet.

Keyboard-Quille THREE of your poetick Effusions in a Fayre Hand, and inclose them in the Submission Forme on the THE FLEA’s Submitte Page, or within an æ-mail address’d to Yr Editor (whose Address may be found vpon that same Submitte page), and be certayne to inscribe THE MERMAID TAVERN as the subject line, or near the toppe of your submission. NB. It is suggested that verses hotly compos’d in a divine afflatus of inspir’d intoxication, be afterwards reviz’d in a more sober & critickal disposition & frame of Minde.

When Yr Editor deems that sufficient lively Bacchanalian Verses have accrued, he will at that point close the Submissions. These Pub-Crawle Birthday Submissions will be in sur-plus & addition to the current General Submissions (which close on the 22nd of January). Authors who have submitted work for the general issues of THE FLEA may nevertheless submit also for this special themed May Birthday Broadsheet.

        Souls of poets dead and gone,
        What Elysium have ye known,
        Happy field or mossy cavern,
        Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?

Sundrie Adviz’ments Concerning SUBMISSIONS &c.

THE FLEA’s first few Broadsheets for 2011 are filling up rapidly. Poets who have submitted work already should rest assur’d that Yr Editor is working diligently through the very large number of submissions in the order of receipt, and that their place in the queue for consideration is secure.

But Authors who submit henceforth from this present Day, until the close of the general Reading Period, viz. the 22nd day of January, should be appriz’d that Yr Hble Editor probably will not be able to put their work (should he chuse it for THE FLEA) into a Broadsheet before about June, or, it may be, even later. So IF Authors still desire to submit work nevertheless, they should factor into their stratagems that it may be a delay of some several Monthes before Publication. One Broadsheet of THE FLEA will, Deo volente, be publish’d each month during 2011, until August; beyond which Yr Editor hath not deviz’d.

AND MOREOVER there will be a special themed Bumper issue for THE FLEA's Secound Birthday Party in May; the Theme to be announc’d anon. Authors & Readers may summon to mind the extravagant Psychedelic Bug Rave of May, 2010, on the Occasion of THE FLEA's First Birthday. Yr Hmble & Obdt is still recovering from that Event. Not necessarily stoned, but... beautiful... http://www.the-flea.com/Issue8/index.html