- published: 28 Feb 2014
- views: 437
Allie Esiri (previously Byrne) read Modern and Medieval Languages at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. She is a former English stage, film, and television actress, now a writer. She created iF Poems, an educational poetry app, the accompanying hardback anthology iF: A Treasury of Poems for Almost Every Possibility, published by Canongate and The Love Book, both an interactive literary app on iOS and Android and a hardback book, published by Square Peg, Random House, of best-loved poems, quotations, and letters on the theme of love. She has hosted poetry events at The Times/Sunday Times Cheltenham Literary Festival, The Sunday Times Education Festival and The Oldie Soho Literary Festival. Previously she was on the Development Board of the Royal Court theatre in London. In 2014 she joined the Advisory Board and became the Poetry Advisor to The Times/Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival. She launched her new series of events: Allie Esiri Poetry Corner with readings by amongst others, Damian Lewis, Helen McCrory, Nathanial Parker and Sophie Turner Game of Thrones. She is a member, alongside Antonia Byatt and Carol Ann Duffy, of the Poetry Book Society UK Children's Poetry Summit. Alongside Roger McGough, Tony Mitton and Tony Bradman, Allie Esiri judged the CLIPPA 2015 Poetry Award, which was announced at a ceremony at The National Theatre on July 16 2015.
Seventeen had it all figured out
I was gonna play ball and make my daddy proud
But some big time folks came rollin into town
They heard me sing and it turned my life around
I had big dreams coulda done a lot of things but I needed
to figure it out
Took a plane from Boston went from LA down to Austin
Then packed my bags for Nashville Tennessee
Heard the honky-tonkers playing
And the heartfelt words they’re sayin
I fell in love with the simple melodies
Thank god that country found me
The opry never played on the radio
Never drove my truck down a backwoods county road
Took a while to get to music row
But now I’m here and I know that I’m home