Episode 31

Back to the poetry!

I received my first fan mail this week, I've had submissions in the past, people asking to be put on the show, but this was the first time anyone has written with nice things to say! When I say nice, I was described as 'Poetry's Smashy n' Nicey", not to bad in my book!

One of the criticisms was the amount of interviews, and a lack of poetry on the podcast, and I'm first to admit that sometimes the shows are a bit balanced in favour of the interview, and it's something I'm going to address in future interviews, and try to get as much poetry as interview.

That does mean that I have still many hours of interview to get out of the next couple of months!

So why have I gone trawling through my back catalogue for this show? Joe Hakim, originally sent me loads of material late last year and at the time I found I could only squeeze one of his poems on to a show, and rather than split up the rest of his material, I thought I'd hold on to it and save it for a show of it's own. Three short Poems from Joe, but three poems that throw up images of not just Hull, but life across middle England as we have come to know it thorough the pages of the Sun and the Star. Joe fills his poems with characters that are no further away than your garden gate, and they jump in your face forcing you to recognise, not just them, but your own reflection too.

The first poet on the show is Ingrid Andrew, who submitted this piece to me a while ago. Ingrid is a fellow south London poet, and this piece, When Woman, is epic. A long poem broken by a musical number which acts to emphasise the theme of the poem, and even though it may be seen to break the resonance of the poem, only works to hammer home the importance of the whole theme. I can't wait to sit down with Ingrid and record some more poetry.