Ellie Spirrett Interview

In the latest of our poet interviews, we have asked our October Headliner

Ellie Spirrett a bunch of questions, Ellie is an amazing poet, with a unique way

of drawing you into her world, with her use of metaphor and imagery. She is one of my

personal favourite poets, and I am always excited to hear what she is doing next.

 

 

I always used to play around with words

and imagery when I was little,

but didn’t really know that it was poetry!

I would write songs a lot too, I did some

projects with the amazing music artist

Homecut Testament from when I was 11

and learnt to write songs.

I was part of a poetry slam group in school,

but when the teacher left and the older students

grew up the group kind of fizzled out.

Then I didn’t perform as a poet again

until 2021 when I went to Some Antics

one friday, and since then I just haven’t stopped.

 

I think I’ve always used poetry

as a way to understand things,

like a journaling tool, where I share

some of it with an audience of friends

and strangers! Growing up I think I struggled

to put how my mind and body was feeling

into words in my day to day life,

so to be able to express it in metaphor was life-saving.

I think when I read or hear some really clever imagery

that resonates with me, it just tugs at my mind

like nothing else, so I’m always trying to do that

in my own work.

 

I pretty much write about what I’ve experienced,

seen, felt, and I try write what I have needed to hear

for anyone else who needs to hear it.

So a lot of my writing is about healing from trauma,

mental health, chronic illness, and all that fun stuff!

I think it’s such a brave thing to do to share something

you’ve been through, especially with a message to support

someone going through something similar

or to raise awareness of what it’s like.

It’s something I’m trying to get used to doing.

I think my poetry is very metaphor heavy,

a little surreal and “flowery”.

Someone pointed out to me recently

that I use a lot of imagery around bodies and houses,

and they asked

if this was on purpose as a running motif. I said yes...

I mean, the Leicester poetry scene

is where I started performing my poetry again

so it truly is home. I wouldn’t be half the poet

I am today without the open mics and the workshops

and the shows. The first time I went to Some Antics

back in summer 2021, Sammy came round with the tickets

and asked if any of us wanted to perform,

and I hesitated for about 2 seconds.

Next thing I know there’s a garden of people shouting “do it!”

From that first day I knew I could just say anything,

try anything and I’d always be met with open arms.

I think that’s true across the board for the Leicester scene,

because of all the amazing open mic hosts

and workshop facilitators.

I didn’t quite realise how special Leicester is

for poetry until I left.

There’s so much going on all of the time,

the only thing I’d improve is the train links

into Leicester so I could come more often!!

What poets do I enjoy?

Locally, I hear there’s some really good poets

at Get Mouthy called Kyle and Carolina..

truly probably the opposite ends of the poetry spectrum,

it’s like seeing Barbenheimer!

Both incredible

and somehow even better on the same night!

My good friend Marie (@drmarle.di)

was just published

in an anthology "Welcome To Britain",

and she’s absolutely amazing.

Chris Oliver (@chrisoliver_spokenword)

is killing it, just gets better every time I see him.

I recently went over to Derby

for a workshop for the first time,

and met some really talented poets over there,

including @amywpoetry @jackperforming @who.thefuckisalice

@thuggishimp & @richilyle – so go follow them

if you’re not already.

Last my friend Oak (@grandoldoak),

who I actually went to school with

and recently reconnected with

after about 10 years!

My Instagram is @yellow_ellie

I’m working up the nerve to get tik tok

so follow me on the gram to keep an eye out for that

 

 

 

A massive thank you to Ellie for taking the time to go over our questions,
and come up with such insightful answers and for putting up
with my begging that she agree to headline for us!

October 9th
Be there, it really will be a treat.

Peace, Love & Poetry

Kyle