Mike charges on a per-person attending basis, plus expenses, ensuring that organisers can plan events with some financial confidence.
What the critics might say:
'Shallow, simplistic, superficial. A Triumph!'
"Brilliant! He puts into words just what I feel."
"I enjoyed your book of poems; they made me smile, brought tears to my eyes, made me angry - especially where children are concerned."
BEFORE.... "I don't like poetry!" AFTER.... " I could be persuaded!"
"Set my feet tapping throughout. Brilliant! This isn't how I remember poetry at school!"
“I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your amusing, clever way of looking at life and your rhythmic style. How do you do it?!”
"An evening of performance poetry inspired by a working visit to Nigeria cleverly evoked the whole feel of a short time spent in Lagos, from desperate searches for a football match on the hotel T.V. to innovative bartering techniques and the responsibility large corporations should have to impoverished countries like Nigeria. A tremendous evening of imaginative, innovative tales which give a whole new perspective to the ‘poetry’ word.”
"Brilliant performance last night. A word-smith in action. Such vibrant energy and talent. Really enjoyed the evening. Thanks for the laughter."
"Thanks very much for putting on the performance last night. We enjoyed it very much and certainly the people in the audience did. It was such a very entertaining evening, offering something different to our social programme in the village."
Performances for adults can last as long as you would like, and vary between one and two hours - or earlier, if people start falling asleep.
Let’s feel it for its rhythm,
Let’s hear it for its rhyme,
Let’s sing it for its music,
Let’s share it all the time,
Till hearts and minds and bodies
By poetry are enchanted:
Arise! Arise! Lift up your souls!
Poetry Licence granted!
Let’s feel it for its rhythm,
Let’s hear it for its rhyme,
Let’s sing it for its music,
Let’s share it all the time,
Till hearts and minds and bodies
By poetry are enchanted:
Arise! Arise! Lift up your souls!
Poetry Licence granted!
Poetry’s our birthright.
Let’s win it back to be
The heartbeat of our living:
Our emotional ABC.
Let poems sing of everything,
Of matters great and small,
From grain of sand to universe,
Of anything at all.
Let’s feel it for its rhythm,
Let’s hear it for its rhyme,
Let’s sing it for its music,
Let’s share it all the time,
Till hearts and minds and bodies
By poetry are enchanted:
Arise! Arise! Lift up your souls!
Poetry Licence granted!
And so on ........
A brief extract from 'Poetic Licence'
mikesmith@mypostoffice.co.uk
'Rhythm & Rhyme - With Time for a Song'
For audiences of all ages
Wondering On Wandering
Based on a poem by John Clare
(1793-1864)
"The maiden wonders on", it read -
The path which "leads somewhere":
Two phrases from this morning's poem -
'November' by John Clare.
The maiden's 'lost' in winter mist,
And 'wonder' here means 'wander';
Interesting confusion,
When to 'wonder' can mean 'ponder'.
To 'wonder' also means to marvel,
Be amazed, in awe;
And as I think and amble
I'm aware of something more ....
For to wander is to wonder -
It’s the body and the mind
On a journey without purpose,
Leaving logic maps behind.
Perhaps we could begin to say:
"Let's take a ‘wonder-wander’;
Leave the here and now
And find whatever might lie yonder."
What that might be cannot be said:
Let ‘wonder-wandering’ be
The means to new imaginings -
And other ways to see.
Hop-A-Long Cassidy
A film I remember
Was ‘Hopalong Cassidy’ -
Priory Cinema,
Every Saturday.
Best things about him?
Hopalong’s hat -
Plus Hopalong’s necker:
A third thing.
“What’s that?”
Hopalong’s limp
Is the third thing I’d choose:
It was, without doubt,
The best tactic I used.
"Used a limp? Used a limp?
What do you mean?”
I limped when I fancied
A girl I had seen.
She’d think, ‘Oh he’s brave.
He must be in pain.’
And when I walked back
I’d be limping again.
For the limp was a means
To be known as, forthwith,
That brave kid (That's me!)
Called Limp-A-Long Smith.
Language, Naturally
Much of our language once grew naturally from our direct association with agriculture. And now?
'Ploughing on regardless';
'Sowing seeds of' - discontent?
'Weeding out', et cetera;
They'll wonder what we meant.
'Furrowed brows'; ‘Hedge your bets';
‘Breezing through a test';
'Deal with thorny issues';
'Stirring up a hornets' nest'.
‘Bogged down’ in an argument;
Embracing ‘winds of change’ …..
Words and phrases such as these
Will one day seem quite strange.
‘Bring them down to earth’ again;
‘Swim against the tide’ -
Language from close contact
With when lives were lived outside.
So what’s the language we’ll bequeath?
'Close contact with the' - what?
Techno-concrete-asphalt
W w w dot ??
Not really. Just thinking!
"Set my feet tapping throughout. Brilliant! This isn't how I remember poetry at school!"
“I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your amusing, clever way of looking at life and your rhythmic style. How do you do it?!”
"Brilliant performance last night. A word-smith in action. Such vibrant energy and talent. Really enjoyed the evening. Thanks for the laughter."
My poems I share here are not necessarily ones I perform. I just like them!
Mike Smith
Pump up the language!
For a handful of earlyish Youtube poems click - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTwcvSz6kdVIAJgaIQZMj4w