Michael Jenkins

Theatre Practitioner, Writer, Performer

explore the word

From the blog

Memory Was Like Water

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

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!

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...

Mother’s Pride Audio

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...

The Escape Artist

The Escape Artist

The Escape Artist by Mike Jenkins This piece was written during the Open-Mic at The Escapist bar in Chichester, on Thursday 30th May and performed on the same night. The music here does not to do justice to the fantastic improvised guitar underscore provided by Jack...

Stonepillow Winter Appeal 2023 – There’s This Place

Stonepillow Winter Appeal 2023 – There’s This Place

STONEPILLOW WINTER APPEAL 2023 – THERE’S THIS PLACE Words Out Loud were asked to write a poem for the Stonepillow Winter Appeal and this year they wanted to highlight the positive impact that their hubs have on the homeless and rough sleepers. Mike wrote a piece...

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.

VIEW WORKSHOPS

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.

VIEW WRITING

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.

VIEW PERFORMANCES

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.

VIEW POEMS

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.