I thought Subverse managed to be what it said on the advert! Open minded, friendly and supportive. We didn't read our poems out but we did share them around and discuss how they related to the theme, which is primarily now, valuing submission, surrender and submissive people. My husband and my Master were both there to support me in this unusual experiment. One man turned up having seen my small poster in the Poetry Cafe. He said he came because it was enigmatic and interesting. He was a frequenter of fetish clubs and when I showed him the 'Beginner's Guide to BDSM' leaflet I have compiled, he made comments like what does BDSM stand for, what does a munch mean and I think vanilla is an underrated flavour, to which we all agreed! He also said I was making myself doubly vulnerable by combining poetry and submission in one event!

When my husband went home, my Master called me over and I knelt on the floor with my head in his hands for a little while. This prompted a discussion about why some men have happy, willing submissive women who will obediently kneel on the floor with their heads in their Master's hands when summoned and other men don't. I suggested it might be something to do with how good a poet you are, although I must admit, this was mostly a blatant piece of propaganda on my part! I didn't notice that this behaviour had shocked anyone, it is a "bohemian" cafe, and we weren't hurting anyone (not even each other in an SSC way!). The waitress looked more intrigued and a little amused that my little poetry group, appeared rather stranger than maybe she had first imagined! The talk other than about our poems was about dress codes, Club Submission and what outfit I was going to wear at Gwendolines nightclub.

We also talked about more opportunities to publicise and promote SubVerse. College noticeboards were a popular suggestion! I am still wondering about how to encourage more open minded women writers along. I was the only woman there, which led me to some speculation about where different people come from as regards advertising. I didn't think how important linking the concepts valuable and submissive people were until last week, I think this is one of the important things to get across to people via SubVerse. In a very simplistic way I felt it was more a case that the men were looking for opportunities and the women were watching out for traps, or maybe the opportunities and traps were operating on different levels. I want SubVerse to be an opportunity not a trap, I want it for people who might only want to explore their feelings on submission via a poetry group, as well as those who are interested in taking it further. I hope I will reach subtle solutions to these subtle problems. The fetish poet described it as a surreal afternoon and took some of my new posters away to put up in more poetry and fetish places around London. I am hoping a dominant woman will come to the next gathering.

elle finn