So this time last year, I entered the Brighton Festival Poetry Competition at the Hendricks Library of Delightfully Peculiar Writings and what a night it was. I got ‘special mention’ which my mum reckons means ‘you were the best really’ but I was particularly devastated that, yet again, the person with the food sex poem won the £100. When I say devastated, I mean I had a major confidence crash and went into major drama queen mode that life would never be the same again. Then my mum (yes really) suggested I write a food sex poem to outdo all other food sex poems and ‘Dinner will be served at 7′ was born. Since then it has been performed to open mouths(!) at several down and dirty pubs and the ‘foodfuck’ poem is my most requested.
But do I really want to be known as the Foodfuck poet?
So, I put it to you…please decide for me? I’ll be sure to let you know how I get on. My choices for entering the competition are:
If you want a reminder of the poems – Brighton is HERE (right click to open in a new window) and Dinner will be Served at 7 is HERE. The medley would probably be Par Pitie, Not the First Date & Blink.
Hmm! It’s difficult to decide and too difficult to vote…. and then i guess it depends on the competition/judges/audience etc. Dinner is served at 7 is hugely successful as a performance poem (not to mention, written especially for such an occassion as this competition) but Brighton is a personal favourite, and then again I especially liked your performance of ‘Tiddly Om’ – it’s pure performance poem and instantly memorable. Not much help really, am I? ha ha. Good luck deciding.
You once asked me to choose my favourite poem. I read every poem in your wonderful book and the list became so long that I gave up counting. There is something for everyone, from the gentle romantic to the blatantly sexy; the whimisical, the sad and the joyful. Brighton is the perfect opening to a performance and Food Sex concludes a performance with a cacophony of words which leaves the listener spellbound. If I were to say you cannot top it, then you would …. immediately, such is your talent. From front cover to back, poems and illustrations all uniquely penned from your own hand; nobody should underestimate you.