From the blog
The Alchemy of Giving
Lately, there have been times when I have felt I did not have the strength, resilience, or resources to face the challenges ahead of me. Moments when I wondered how much longer I could keep going. In the last seven days, two friends, unconnected and very dear to me,...
Stopping for Stoppard
23:17 Stopping for Stoppard Saturday 4th April 2026 Listening to Tom Stoppard (1937-2025) on R4, the programme is Archive on 4, Tom Stoppard: Verbatim.This weekend there is and has been a celebration of his life and work. I've listened to some of the programmes and...
Mothering Heights
Audio Recording You Are Better Than My PenA powerful new voice in contemporary verse. From the streets of a Belfast childhood to wandering in Downtown New York, from meditations on life in rural, cathedral-town Sussex to the deep, flowing rivers of desire, this first...
There’s a Place for Stonepillow
In Dec 2023 Stonepillow asked me to write a poem for their Winter Appeal to raise awareness and funding for their local hubs. At the Big Sleep out event in September 2024, I read the poem at Chichester Cathedral. I wanted to write a poem that conveyed the positive...
Ships (in Leonard’s Yard)
Ships (in Leonard's Yard) by Mike Jenkins 19th August, 2024 I wrote this mostly as a stream of consciousness and quite quickly heard the melody of Leonard Cohen's song 'Suzanne' as the rhythm of the poem took hold, so I let it lead. I added the subtitle, 'in Leonards...
Memory Was Like Water
Memory Was Like Water by Mike Jenkins Memory was like water, quick sometimes, evaporating and reappearing, dripping unheard and unseen or gushing up from the cracks of an overheated moment. Kept for years sometimes, in the same container in the same location alongside...
The Baffling Case of the Bognor Bureau
The Baffling Case of the Bognor Bureau Originally written for The Bognor Regis Heritage Partnership as part of their Tales with a Twist short story competition and was first performed by TV and stage actress, Jean Rogers. The monologue won joint 3rd prize. Mr R...
Mostly Empty Space… Victorious!
Mostly Empty Space... Victorious by Mike Jenkins sailing out against a sea of Virginia woolf's wadinghelpless, harrowed sorrow billowing skirts of jellyfishyellowing and returning some hundred years laterVictorious!running rings round the Saturn edge of cups...
The Caretaker – Chichester Festival Theatre in Good Hands
This production of The Caretaker by Harold Pinter demonstrates how vital theatre is for reflecting our world back to us, to hold a mirror up to nature (our nature as humans in particular) and to sit alongside it, to witness it and let that world speak to us.The play...
Mother’s Pride Audio
On this day in June 2006 (18 years ago) I had just come home from 9 days in hospital after a 12 hour operation for mouth cancer. All I remember from that weekend was eating a roast dinner in my mum’s garden with my plate of food blended (on the strict instructions...
WORKSHOPS
Experienced in designing & leading theatre, acting, and creative writing workshops, Mike can work with young people in schools and colleges and with adults in businesses and community groups.
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WRITING
Mike writes plays, scripts, poems, articles and blog posts and has a particular interest in writing about meditation and spiritual practice. Discover new and emerging work and get in touch if you’d like to collaborate.
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PERFORMANCES
View details of upcoming events where Mike will be performing, find out how to hire him as a speaker or a performer for an event and read about some of the productions he has appeared in over the years.
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POEMS
Read and listen to selection of original poems here, purchase a copy of Mike’s first full collection of Selected Poems and connect with Words Out Loud.
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A powerful new voice in contemporary verse. From the streets of a Belfast childhood to wandering in Downtown New York, from meditations on life in rural, cathedral-town Sussex to the deep, flowing rivers of desire, this first collection of poetry from Mike Jenkins mixes the numinal with the everyday, the earthy with the spiritual, and the romantic with the carnal.
With stories of hope, love, and happiness in fleeting moments, and pain, longing, and despair in others, these poems are never less than beautiful, honest, and breathtakingly original – sharing the voices of mothers, fathers, lovers, and – at times – of darkness itself. But at the heart of this collection is a simple idea: trying to capture the essence of moments that are sometimes more powerful than the pen.
