#context here is roommate talked me into reading something for a poetry reading thing he organised

[ante--meridiem]

Extremely confidence boosting to me that every time I've read my poetry out loud in public at least one person has come up to me afterwards to say they like it. More confidence boosting than people telling me I'm good at anything else which usually just feels very awkward because poetry is something I don't feel I can self evaluate at all because I know how easy it is for something to accidentally come out cliched/overwrought.

[scott-mccall-the-hot-girl]

my ultimate guide to thiam fic !!

( as a new teen wolf stan )

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the classic post war, long ass (multi chapter) fic !!with great development that genuinely made me laugh out loud, they have the best friendship in this & i love it very much. ( like theo teaches liam to drive and i just *happy sobs* ) a fundamental in thiam fanfiction !! all stans have probably already read it but if you haven’t this is in fact a threat ,, go show this vv iconic story some love !!

Airplanes - Captainmintyfresh

Summary: After the Anuk-ite and the hunters are dealt with Liam needs a break. Cue Theo and a road trip that Liam should know better than to think will be peaceful.

Not Rated, No Archive Warnings Apply, Completed, 43/43 Chapters, Words: 236,875 (236k)

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okay okay so this one is also post 6B !! but ,, now we introduce fighting monroe & the hunters again ,, so we get the boys & a new mission !! so if you like an intresting plot 11/10 would recommend !! just to be clear this ISN’T complete ,, if that turns you off i understand but definitely give this one a read !! it litterally have theo doing crossword puzzles & fighting zombies

Vacancy Signs - LovelyLittleGrim

Summary: Theo and Liam are in Manhattan negotiating a pack allyship when the zombie apocalypse breaks out. Now, the two of them have to find their way back to Beacon Hills without getting eaten by zombies or killing one another.

Rated: Explicit, Graphic Description of Violence, Not Completed, 15/17 Chapters, Words: 89,605 (89k)

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Royalty AU !! I REPEAT ROYALTY AU !! a fantastic au where i stan their moms more than i stan them !! genuinely so good at the childhood rivals to lovers trope !! i’m genuinely obsessed with this one. has made me cry more than once ,, hurts in a good way <3 the ending is just *chefs kiss* also one of the tags is genuinely: # theo and liam make bad choices for over 130k straight !! if that doesn’t sound appealing i don’t know what does !!

Artificial Love - songbvrd

Summary: Prince Theo and Prince Liam are forced to spend every Summer together from age five onwards. They hate each other, and usually find ways to make each other miserable as much as possible in their six weeks together. But when they're reunited because of intended unions as adults, things change. They're both supposed to be married to noble women, but neither of them is as interested in anyone else as they are with their childhood rival.

Rated: Mature, No Archive Warnings Apply, Completed, Chapters: 32/32, Words: 172,935 (172k)

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so if you are in the mood for a crack fic that’s not explicitally a crack fic this is for you !! okay so i’m really hit or miss with AU’s ,, sometimes i feel like they don’t quite capture the characters right but this story have the BEST dramatic liam i have ever seen in my life !! basically they all live in the same apartment building & it’s fantastic !! i saw this one floating around a lot but the summary didn’t really unrest me until i have it a shot !! so go read it rn !! also nolan & brett are genuinely fantastic and make me wheeze ,, LIKE ACTUALLY VERBALLY LAUGHING !! all i’m gonna say is that my fav characters are scott & the beetles but that won’t make actual sense until you read it !!

The Neighbors Song - TheodoreR

Summary: “I always hear you singing on your balcony every morning, but suddenly you’ve stopped?”

Or the one where Theo annoys Liam every morning with his awful singing until he doesn’t anymore and Liam is even more annoyed. Liam hates every single thing about his mornings -the fact that they happen in the morning alone is enough. The thing Liam hates the most about his mornings though is the terrible voice of the guy who lives below him. He can’t sing for shit and Liam tried to politely let him understand that by throwing flour and water on his balcony, and also by shouting it to him, you can’t sing for shit!, and then by writing it into a note he proceeded to attach to his door, but this Raeken guy just keeps doing it, every single morning, like a fucking rooster. Liam did nothing to deserve this. He probably didn’t do anything to deserve better either to be fair, he doesn’t expect to open his window and be welcomed by some angelic voice singing him good morning, he’d just be happy with nothing. Silence. That’s something Liam can appreciate in mornings. Just some bark from his dog and the sound of his misery and that’s it. But no, god forbid the new guy lets him have that.

Rated: Explicit, Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Wanrings, Completed, 8/8 Chapters, Words: 42,814 (42k)

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me: i’m not a big fan of AU’s ,, proceeds to talk about ANOTHER au… OKAY BUT THIS ONE !! it’s not complete but the author has been updating regularly ,, vv slow burn !! but in a REALLY intresting way !! i lOVE LIAM IN THIS SO MUCH ,, he is such a diaster of a person and it’s wonderful !! they have a great dynamic & i’m sucker for general puppy pack content ( and erica reyes being a badass ) !! also theo plays lacrosse in this & i really like it ahhhhh ,, also liam is just being an artic monkeys stan the whole time & theo is like *que confused repressed gay noises*

Inglorious Roommates - honeyscape

Summary: A roommate is defined as “a person with whom one shares a room.”

Theo would say a roommate was more along the lines of, “The person who's the bane of his existence. The weirdo that sleeps for days. The spaz that exercises at 3am. The guy with a revolving door of annoying friends. An insufferable human being that Theo has no control over living in his room.”

Example: Theo hates his roommate Liam.

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okay okay i hate myself but i have another WIP for y’all !! this one is jUST FANTASTIC. i’m genuinely so upset it’s most likely not going to updated again *incoherent screaming ensues*. for this story ,, it’s very theo-centric bUT thats bc it ends right before liam becomes a concrete member of the story !! ANYWAY: basic plot = theo & acquiring not one but two children ,, so #dad theo but he is still crusty & homeless and i love him very much. it’s just so GOOD !! just read if you want to experience my fav theo coming out story & him etching high school musical

Look who's talking - Captainmintyfresh

Summary: Theo had been labeled many things in his life. Evil, failure, monster. He'd never thought Father would be one of those things but as he looked across the table to a six year old with blue smears of bubble gum icecream across her face trying to coax the first words out of her sister. Finger jabbing towards Theo's face as she repeated 'Daddy' again and again he couldn't bring himself to dispute the label.

(Theo accidentally adopts two young werewolves)

Not Rated, Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings, Not Completed, Chapters: 16/?, Words: 48740 ( 48k )

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so here me out: post-canon ( poetry like angst ) summer get away !! just the boys doing cute little domestic things together whilst pining !! theo’s guilt in this is just so powerful & aGjffkgkkfkvkdlv !! i think it’s so interesting to see how they interact in this one, it’s just very heart warming !! and it features one of my favorite niche teen wolf tropes of theo being great with like seven year old girls- it’s just so good ,, very much a wonderful little one shot that just makes your heart happy.

(next time i see you you'll show me) a hundred different ways to say the same things - cherrysprite

Summary: “...You deserve good things,” Liam says eventually. He makes sure not to look at Theo even though he can feel his eyes turn on him. Somehow he can already tell that Theo doesn’t believe him.

Liam instantly makes that the goal of this summer - making Theo believe him.

Rating: Teen and Up, No Archive Warnings Apply, Chapters: 1/1, Words: 28875 ( 28k )

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okay so this next section of fic recs is a bit different !!

two of my favorite authors !! and a compilation of fics i’ve read by them both !!

for context: these two have written some genuinely gorgeous fics, like pure poetry, they explore the real gritty & scary side of our boys relationship in such a wonderful way. they’ve both used some of my favorite tropes & i love them very much !!

whenever i need something soothing but so genuinely intresting & enticing these are my go to !! ( also they both write a lot of good nolan angst & some vv good fics with hayden )

go check out:

eneiryu

as well as fallingforboys

here are some of my favorite fics by them ~

darling i want you here in my arms (kiss the pain away, i know you can) - fallingforboys

even before you touched me, i belonged to you (all you had to do was look at me) - fallingforboys

memories linger like tattoo scars (but your touch on my skin is just as permanent) - fallingforboys

skin, bones, a stolen heart, and an ugly creature lurking underneath -fallingforboys

i don't know how to breathe in the place i called home - fallingforboys

whisper your gossamer truths into the shadow, maybe you'll find the answers you're searching for - fallingforboys

between the mountains and the valley we built a monument to our regret - eneiryu

cracked the hinges of the cage and waited for you - eneiryu

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okay and finally: since i am a self centered whore

my own fic: an rendition of the # elevator scene

it’s basically my version of post canon if we did get the kiss in the elevator. we got a classic liam pov in which he is has 12/10 for extreme bi diaster energy even whilst being shot at !! so go him ig…

Fuck Off, Fuck This & Fuck It! - nefelibata_peach

Summary: Liam thought to himself heart rate climbing, they were bound to be dead by morning. So he thought with everything but his brain and he kissed him.

Where Liam Dunbar is very confused, slightly traumatized, and just a bit scared but hey, aren't they all! Bad decisions ensue as two boys fight in a war they never did sign up for.

Rating: Teen and Up, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Chapters: 1/1, Words: 3558 ( 3k )

[whereisthepoetrymariabarros-blog]

Talks with other poets

Matt Appleby 

He opened my mind for the idea of border-less Poetry, which gives me good perspectives for the future.

I first met Matt in London Bus Station, it had been my first time in the city and I was ready to come back to Newcastle. He was also coming back home, Manchester in his case. In fact, it was funny the way we met. We were sitting next to each other and suddenly started laughing at the same time. I was laughing because the wind made the skirt of a girl get up and she was clearly not expecting that. I thought he was laughing at the same thing, but I was wrong “I was laughing”, he said, “because it’s so good to be here!”. We continued talking and I found that he was a language’s teacher and that he knew how to speak 7 different languages! Throughout the conversation we spoke English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. We talked about poetry, how we both like to write and to travel and our desire to make this in our professional future. I was really interested in his projects, he just moved from Italy to Colombia and he was in charge of one of the most popular poetry nights in Bologna, with poems’ readings in twelve different language, including Portuguese, followed by a translation into English. He was interested in my projects too, so we exchanged contacts. We kept sending emails to each other with poems, ideas and short stories, in English and sometimes in Portuguese. We also discussed our translation options for specific ideas or lines in poems - sometimes it is really hard but it is a challenge - for example, how to translate “glimpse” to Portuguese, we don’t really have a fair expression for the meaning of this word. Above there are two emails that I selected where he talks about poems that I use in the performance WHERE IS THE POETRY?. The story he talks about is “The Idea”.

“Dear Maria,

I think your story is excellent and the poem too. It was a pleasure meeting you - let me know what you think of this. It was the first story I ever published, when I was nineteen.

Matt” 

“(...) The imagery, particularly the stranger stuff, is beautiful. "My skin vibes with the first yellows of the day" is fantastic. "These unfinished drawings in your hand" too. I don't want to dissect it too much, but "I walk through the birth of an idea" is also excellent - send me more whenever you like.

Matt

PS. I also wish I had my Portuguese wine.”

Interview to Matt:

What is poetry for you?

Matt: It’s someone strange and often lonely, who might not speak your language, who might be long dead, and the connection you can have with that person.

What has your relationship with poetry been so far?

Matt: In spring in my city the pollen is thick, it piles up on my windowsill, people have to sweep it off the roads. One of my roommates is allergic. Because of his allergies, I suspect also because he enjoys it, he clears his throat. Until you’ve been woken up by my roommate’s historically loud throat-clearing, or the opera singer who lives upstairs from me, or the drilling in the car park by my flat, you don’t know what it’s like to spend a day without writing. Everything nags. I can’t rest. When I was nine I wrote long stories and forced my friends to read them so it must’ve been the same then as well.

Why did you start writing poems in the first place?

Matt: Because of what my grandmother and parents read me. We read Shelley, Hans Christian Andersen, Beyond the Deepwoods, His Dark Materials, and they were contagious.

What inspires/motivates you to create?

Matt: I saw a girl near the supermarket trying to sell yoghurt, I went home and wrote a story about that. My dad and I birdwatch together so I think a lot about swifts. For motivation, I have one good reader. When I talk to them about books I feel like writing, and my writing, is important.

Can you talk more deeply about your most recent project?

Matt: I’m publishing a book of young poets from the city I live in. I’m writing a novel too: it’s stalling.

What is the challenge of dealing with poetry in many different languages?

Matt: The only challenge is looking at a book in Classical Arabic and thinking I want to read you but can’t.

How do you feel about writing poems in other languages?

Matt: I studied languages so I don’t mind stealing and I don’t mind making mistakes. That’s partly because of the sort of writer I am, which is grubby and arrogant. But better writers steal too. Borges and Pessoa grew up speaking English and write the best prose in Spanish and Portuguese. Carpentier spoke French before Cuba, Nabokov was taught trilingually, Conrad learned English in his twenties. At their best, non-native speakers write better novels than native speakers. Poetry is a different, since novels are how languages end and poems are often how they start, but I think a non-native speaker of English could write a better poem than a native speaker, at least in a language as stodgy as English.

What are the particularities of English poetry that most appeal to you?

Matt: English has been manhandled. It’s so well-used. There aren’t many ways that English writing can be made to feel new without splicing it with other languages. That’s what Joyce tried, it’s why Sarah Howe uses Cantonese, or Salman Rushdie uses Urdu. So I like that mix of languages. I like that it’s malleable. I like that it can be read by so many people. But I don’t like that English has been done so well before.

What professional opportunities are there for poets nowadays in England?

Matt: You can teach writing, and T. S. Eliot famously worked in a bank, so there are lots of ways to sell out. Everyone knows it’s difficult to make money from poetry. The best thing is to do is find a job that is irrelevant to writing, surrounds you with people who don’t care about your writing, and affords you the time to write.

What do you think motivates people to read poetry or see it performed?

Matt: It’s interesting to see what other people think, and useful to be reminded of how stupid you are.

How does performance poetry differ between countries and cultures?

Matt: It varies more between subculture than culture. Students and people with degrees will come to a poetry reading if you invite them, and that reading is almost the same in France or Italy or Colombia. People who didn’t go to university (or science students) are more wary, but once you’ve convinced them that it won’t be boring (or slam poetry) they’ll usually go. Everyone loves rap, so rhyming is still cool. Often people’s first contact with a language is song lyrics, so there’s always someone who wants to read Frank Sinatra. I used to be snobby about that but not anymore. Poems that are scathing about young people are popular everywhere among young people. Bad love poetry ruins relationships, that’s universal too.

What do you know about Portuguese poetry? Can you talk about your relationship with it?

Matt: I don’t know very much because I’ve read so little Portuguese. Machado de Assis and Fernando Pessoa are wonderful. When I read Portuguese I understand without having learned it, which is how I feel when I read good poems too.

What is the biggest challenge for you as a poet?

Matt: Writing well about sex. Describing what it’s like to care about someone without rotting a reader’s teeth. How to make rhyme relevant. Whether to give it all up and get a gym membership instead. Whether to learn a new language. Not imagining myself accepting the Nobel Prize. Not thinking everything I’ll ever write is shit. Not copying other writers. Not boring friends with poems. Not being distracted by Facebook but has the girl I like messaged me? Not using friends as character fodder. Not writing in public so that I can be seen writing. Thinking more deeply about other people.

What are your plans for the future?

Matt: I’m going to be an interpreter.

Ellen Phethean

On Tuesday 14th March, at 2pm, I met the English poet at Waterstones, the bookshop near the Monument. I suggested the place because it’s one of my favorite bookstores in Newcastle and a great place to write or memorize my lines - there’s never too much noise or too much silence and the hot chocolate is amazing. We talked about her creative process, she said that as me she likes to write in places like the one we were on, or somewhere inspiring outside home. We talked about professional possibilities in the poetry area, as giving creative-writing workshops (as the one she gave us in Facilitation Module in the Last Semester), write for performances (as I’m doing for Diana’s performance), write and perform it (as I’m doing now in this project) or write without the propose of performing it - write just for people to read. I never really thought about “just writing” and it was good to have a chat about it. She told me that she used to think in the same way as me, think that it was not enough for itself, but that when she actually had the courage to do it, she found new things and felt happy and realized with her work. Her last book was for kids and we talk about that too, how is like to write for kids - it interests me because my story “The Idea” can be good for children, even more now that I associated my toys of the characters to it. How can I develop my play with the toys and transform it in a piece for children? I was also interested in giving workshops in different contexts, taking the poetry and my acting and facilitating skills with me. Actually in the beginning I was deciding if I should do a facilitation project for this module of Professional Directions or if I should focus on my poetry. Why not to do both of them in the future? As an advice she told me to keep writing and engaging in the poetry events around me. If I keep passionate about my projects, the opportunities will end up appearing, she said. She also said that she feels that all of this is worth it when she realizes that her work was important for somebody, that it gave someone something new or meaningful. I found it really inspiring to talk with her.

I recorded this 30 minutes conversation with Ellen and I was happy with the tape because we could feel the atmosphere of the place by listening to it. Unfortunately I had a problem in my phone that made me loose all my recordings, so I described what happened with my words.

Alix Alexandra

I met Alix in 2nd February, at a Jam Poetry in Durham, she was one of the guests of that night. We first talked because we liked each other’s poetry. I could identify with her work because her principal themes were love, pain and change - very similar to mine. I liked her way of performing, she played a really nervous and emotive persona in her talks between the readings of the poems, which cached everybody’s attention and made the audience like her and cheer for her. She also sings her poetry and I’m following her page since then, so I can be close to what her projects are.

Here is her page: https://www.facebook.com/alixalixandramusic/

Márcia Nicolau

This beloved friend of mine is a Portuguese poet that published her first book in the last year. She writes about time, what means to be a child and has a strong connection with the nature. She’s been working with children recently. I really identify myself with her work and her professional objectives and I think I will probably work with her in the future. 

Here is a page presenting one of her workshops, where there are some more informations about her and her projects: http://www.cm-melgaco.pt/apresentacao-do-livro-papa-siriruia/

Natasha Brown

Natasha is from my class in the Drama Course and I know since the last semester that she share with me the passion for poetry. We talk about our projects frequently and we even worked together in a poetry scene for Contemporary Performance this semester. Below is my talk with this brilliant poet.

What is poetry for you?

Natasha: For me, poetry is a creative outlet for all of my inner emotions. Usually it's the emotions that I don't understand which I write about because it helps me to process them.

How have your life been related with the poetry so far?

Natasha: I have been involved in quite a lot of projects. I came 3rd in Birmingham's young poet laureate in 2013 and was shortlisted in 2014. Since then I get commissioned to write poetry for different people. I've been asked to write poems for black history month, I got involved in a project called "Who am I" where I explored who I am through my poetry which then toured the West Midlands, I have been performed at local poetry events, written for national literature day and I go into schools and perform poetry and teach children how to write.

Why did you start writing poems in the first place?

Natasha: I discovered my love for writing by accident actually. I was on holiday with a cousin and I wrote a poem about my experience on holiday and I shared it with her - I was just practising what I had learned at school. She encouraged me to share it, so I started sharing it with friends who encouraged me to write more and to start performing my poetry.

What inspire/motivate you to create?

Natasha: The things that inspire me to create are the events that go on in the world and in my own life personally. I've written poems which have related to my audience and when they come up to me with a positive response it instantly makes me want to write more, knowing that my poetry has influenced and inspired one person inspires me.

Can you talk more deeply about your most recent project?

Natasha: My most recent project was actually a poem which I had written for a university module. This was probably the hardest project that I had ever worked on, because I'm so used to writing as myself, with my own views and opinions that writing from a characters perspective was really difficult. I had to think about how that character felt about certain situations, how that character would speak and feel about the topic she was talking about. I really enjoyed working on this project as it opened up a new reality for me and a new way for me to write.

How does poetry help you to pass through hard moments in life?

Natasha: Poetry helps loads with the difficult moments that I face with life. It provides me with a healthy escape for my problems, writing poetry and delivering it helps me to process the situations that I face in life and to speak about them. I don't usually like to speak about my problems, however I love performing my poetry. So if you read or listen to my poetry, you will see a side to me that you probably would have never met.

What are the professional opportunities for the poets nowadays in England?

Natasha: Poetry is a growing industry in England. I feel like people are now realizing the beauty of spoken word poetry. For example, I was watching the nationwide advert and I noticed spoken word artists that I know performing. There's one, but also teaching is another job for spoken word artists, going into schools and teaching children how poetry works. I remember having to learn about poetry for my English GCSE. When the child sees poetry first hand, I feel they connect with it more. People are also freelance writers. They write and perform poetry for people's weddings, birthdays or other events that they may have on. Poetry is used in many ways, we as poets need to look for the opportunity and grasp them.

What do you think that motivates people to read/see poetry?

Natasha: I think the motivation between people reading or watching poetry is their curiosity and uncertainty in what poetry is. I see audiences from all ages come to poetry nights, young people and old people. People automatically believe that poetry is boring, because they associate it negatively. However when they see it being performed, they realise that it's almost like rap.

Why do people need poetry?

Natasha: People need poetry to keep their imaginations alive. I love word association poetry games where someone says a word and the word the next person says has to rhyme with it. Poetry is great for getting people to express themselves in a creative way.

What is the biggest challenge for you as a poet?

Natasha: The biggest challenge for me as a poet is finding opportunities to perform. I kind of have to throw myself out there and take any opportunity as it comes as poetry is still a growing network. I find it difficult to find other poets to collaborate with, that has similar interests for their craft as I do.

What are your plans for the future?

Natasha: My plans for the future are to become an actor. I want to be on the stage performing in shows and using my poetry to help me in any way possible. I want to make the growth of the poetry industry bigger and better for everyone involved.