Wednesday, December 6, 2006

“Like a crucified Noddy!” (GCSE POETRY LIVE)

THE POETS WE SAW TODAY AND WHY THEY WERE GOOD OR NOT:

  1.  Carol Ann Duffy
    - She was good, and her poems are of course brilliant, but it’s not her fault she has a boring voice and didn’t seem to genuinely care. She also is apparently a Thatcherite. Must not let political view bias me. Must not let political view bias me. Must not let - BZUH?

  2. Imtiaz Dharker
    - I genuinely liked her, especially her poem “They’ll Say: She Must Be From Another Country”. She was cheerful and interesting and was really trying hard to engage with the audience.

  3. Simon Armitage
    - This guy was so good, seriously. I was quite disappointed that he didn’t read November, and even more disappointed when AnnoyingBeardyGuy (TM) hurried him off stage before giving him a chance to answer our questions. He was absolutely hilarious, as shown in the title, and confided in us that he’d always had a secret longing to have a friend called John. Bless.
  4. Grace Nichols
    - I was shocked to find out the she was married to John Agard, but that made me quite pleased. She didn’t bore me, exactly, she just… I dunno. I didn’t particularly like or dislike listening to her, but she didn’t exactly make me want to jump to see her again. Oh, wait, no, she did the brilliant rap poems. I did warm to her. POO-PE-SHOO, POO-POO-PE-SHOO!
  5. Gillian Clarke
    - I did really like her, and I think it was her who finally answered one of Jim’s questions. Either way, it almost makes me sad that we’re not studying her… she also didn’t seem to have too high an opinion of herself, which made a nice change. “A Difficult Birth” made me squirm uncomfortably though. Ick. Just ick.
  6. John Agard
    - This man was fan-bloody-tastic. He got us all laughing and joining in, and genuinely having fun. He was like the poets from my younger years all grown up, and from the moment he walked onstage we were cheering for him. What was that couplet he said?
    “The last man who mistook me for a log
    Lost his leg, and can no longer jog.”

    Or something like that, at any rate. He read twice as many poems as everyone else, and spoke twice as much, but it was so funny.

Other highlights (and lowlights) of the day included AnnoyingBeardyGuy(TM), a fucking poetry roadie, Jimmy being blatantly ignored by aforementioned AnnoyingBeardyGuy(TM), Sarm losing Jimmy at lunch, the queue in the toilets, James Hughes offering to replace Jimmy for me, me backing away very quickly and saying “NOTHAT’SOKAYJAMESTHANKYOU”, my banana smooshing everywhere, that really nice porkpie I had for lunch, the boring examiner guy talking and talking for ages, and us yelling at Adrian over injokes. As well as me becoming an expectant father-to-be.

Any advice on how to raise little-uns, people?

Abs x 

Posted by Abs in 20:17:05 | Permalink | Comments (7)