A few weeks ago, myself and Chris Singleton spent the
weekend stood in a field shouting poetry at each other.
Around us was a festival, Deer Shed to be precise, a swarm of
10,000 people 45% of the under 16.
Amidst the chaos of workshops and music we performed poems by
request. On the spot improvisations. Based on audience’s suggestions. Anything for an easy life, right?
When I’ve done this before in cafes, pubs and libraries
there’s always more resistance and uncertainty, but in the middle of a wacky
festival we are just one more attraction the kids get excited by, and that’s a
testament to the intense madcapness of Deer Shed.
Some of my favourite requests were the ones me and Chris
tag-teamed, telling a story between ourselves and often the people who had
suggested the poem. Though me and Chris aren’t necessarily from a rap background,
we tried to take part in rap battles.
Child-friendly of course.
Monsters vs. Robots, Shrek vs. Nemo, meat-eaters vs. vegetarians. Not poems I’d ever claim to be worthy of Don’t
Flop videos, but fun in the moment nevertheless.
You can watch one of our battles here: https://www.facebook.com/DeerShed/videos/10153585201676619/
It was also fun collaborating with Chris, who is a lovely
poet from Leeds running Verbal
Remedies and running into a few lovely folks, like Kate Fox and the Holy
Moly & The Crackers ensemble.
Deer Shed is a great fun festival, designed for families, so
maybe not one of my favourite as a participant (seriously, no ska-punk stage?)
but definitely my favourite to visit as a performer and poet.
Here’s a poem what I wrote for the Festival inspired by the suggestions
of passing peoples:
At Deer Shed Festival
I ate the best
The tastiest
Most monstrous Hot
Dog ever
At Deer Shed Festival
I watched the Card Ninja
Boomeranging cards
with calculating power.
I spent a good hour
cart-wheeling by the Helter Skelter
Filled up the comedy
tent with roaring laughter
Then some
crowd-surfing like a winged monster.
I strummed a metallic
3 stringed guitar
Elementary! I went to see Sherlock Improv
Grumbling bears, stories
to hear, a raggle taggle of cracker folk.
Zombies! All around me! That’s realistic blood!
I stayed up partying
as late as I possibly could.
The Blacksmith
clattered in metal-melting heat
I opened my Northern
gob to speak (and eat)
And I don’t know who
won, the Monsters or Machines
But if this Festival
was a film
It would be an
action-filled classic.
Similarly, this weekend I was at DissFest writing poems for
people visiting the very sublime Fairchild’s Tea Room. This time more relaxed, you could almost say
tamer, as I penned some poems for people supping delicious fruity teas in the
mega civilised and friendly atmosphere. Here’s
one of the poems I wrote about the English weather:
As you know, as summers go
The English one is to-and-fro
Enjoy the parks, the fields, the beach
The trees cast shadows in the heat
It’s shades and spades and t-shirt weather
Carry an umbrella? Ha! Never!
We’ll get toasted, burnt red
Feel the rays upon my head
But, what’s this? In
a flash
The dusty dirt is a muddy splash
The rain comes in buckets and buckets
No! We cry: SKY STOPPIT
The rivers rise, the wind it cries
Cats and dogs storms and spray
It ruins our sunny day
So now we know, us soggy fools
Never break the golden rule
Always carry a cagoule.
DissFest, run by Unity Twenty Three, is like the LittleFests I've worked on in Yorkshire, a way to get people to engage with arts in their town by putting it into unusual spaces, or making it as accessible as possible. Lovely friendly, and important, work by the team.
And another I wrote for a women about the Ukraine, her home country
And another I wrote for a women about the Ukraine, her home country
Last night we heard the mountains cracking
Like skin from burning sunshine
We saw the rocks peel away
And the countryside cower into itself
In the morning we walked from the river
And, like pulsing veins over stinging skin,
We passed forests deep like black tea
Then the old sky mixed colours of blues and greys
And the rain washed down like a heavy tea
Poured with gentle care
And we smiled, and we washed away the night
And carried on walking
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