Poetry...-A little review on me- South Shields

A few weeks ago I was contacted by email by a representative of 'Sky', they have a local website in this area called Sky Tyne And Wear. 

This is the email..

Hi Michael

 

Hope you’re well.

 

I’m the Community Manager for Sky Tyne and Wear and I’ve noticed your blog, it’s great!

 

We’re launching a new part of the site in September which will be called Local life/Noticeboard (TBC).

 

It’s going to be a user-led section where people can upload content and blogs. We’re in the process of looking for bloggers who will have a profile on the site and who will blog regularly for us on topics of interest in Tyne &Wear. Be that theatre, baking, food, lifestyle, fashion home interiors etc. In the process of seeking bloggers we’ve been looking at your blog and were wondering if you would be interested in contributing?

 

We can link back to your blog and there will be other incentives also, to be discussed later.

 

Could you let me know your thoughts on this?

 

Many thanks.

 

My thoughts on this!!!???@@@....I nearly shat myself with excitement.

In the communications that followed I mentioned that not only do I perform on print, but that I also do a little bit of poetry, and was thinking of opening my blog up to it.

As a bit of an audition she asked me to write about my poetry experience, put down in print what excited me etc..

So here it is. 

Hope you enjoy reading it, as much as I enjoyed writing it

Poetry

I had always wanted to write. When 'Top Of The Pops' was on, I didn't necessarily want to be the next Jimmy Page..or that mad animal drummer Keith Moon. I wanted to be the man behind the scenes, the man to come up with the words.

So I wrote when me and a few pals got together in a community centre to thrash out a few songs that we wanted to perform locally. Yes ok I was the mad animal drummer, but I had a microphone to sing my words...and I never trashed my drum kit.

We never got far, in house fighting, the singer couldn't sing and I must admit girls were on the scene for me in a big way!!

So lyrics became love poems to ease my way into the loving stakes, a man needs his comfort, and my comfort was the ooohing and the ahhhhing of my subjects..!!

I had never performed my works in public before, but always wanted too, never got the chance when I was 'little' but working with theatre bods and poets alike, the situation came about a few weeks ago to get my 'bits' out into  open.

I went with a great poet Viv Wiggins (yes she is related to the Olympic cyclist) to a small community centre, but had the air of a buzzing cafe.

As I entered the c/c I instantly thought that the people there, were not ready for my stuff...I might give them a heart attack, with some of my subject matter.

The night had four head-liners on, but with open mic space in between.

The first headliner played it safe with material that everybody had heard before; good, but we wanted something new and exciting.

The first open mic session I forced my mate to get up to give me the spur to do it the next time, she was brilliant doing new stuff to raptures of applause.

The second headliner came on and was a little bit more racy with his material, I hadn't seen him before, so listening to his approach to his work and the styling of his words was very good to hear.

My turn..my turn. I nervously got up and introduced myself, told the crowd of 30 or so that this was my first time doing anything poetry wise (I have done a couple of stints at comedy stand up, but prefer to watch that atm.)

It was such a buzz to read my stuff from the heart, the years of words just spilling out from my gob was a massive turn on. I did play it safe for the first time up, but the next headliner shook me and the rest of the crowd with her poems of sex and death and passion, so I knew that after her I would be fighting off people to get up there first.

I have performed since then at house parties on my travels over the summer, to rave reviews...One Italian girl was so moved by one of my mushy heart breaking poems that she asked me if she could recite it in her mother tongue. This to me was like having an audience with the Pope..So so beautiful. It has in fact given me so many ideas of how I want some of my work to be performed, bit of foreign tongue, bit of guitar, bit of Hunter Love Poem God..!!

Michael Hunter