Geraint - Speak Easy 23/03/10

Geraint is probably fed up of us mispronouncing his name every time he comes but he cant be that bothered because he keeps coming back and we enjoy his performance every time. I dont think Ive got a single pop culture reference at Speak Easy (I must have led a very sheltered life), but whether its about the Wire, the Blues Brothers, or anything else I havent seen, Im still struck by the quality of the performances, and Geraint is a great example of this. He reads six short poems about anger, from different perspectives, such as that of the angry drunk, or the angry partner, though he assures us that hes not an angry person himself.

He tells us he commissioned himself to write the next poem, to commemorate his friend Bobs birthday. He uses words that rhyme with Bob that begin with every letter of the alphabet, and I dont want to spoil anything for you, but its so good and performed so well that its a definite highlight of the night, and simply a must see. He mentions Blackadder Ive seen that! Geraints got one more poem for us, about swimming at night, which perfectly caps an excellent performance.

Geraint - Speak Easy 23/02/10

Sarah introduces Geraint next, proving that I'm not the only one whos not so good with names but we forgive her (please forgive me). He continues the theme John started, with a poem about being a poet called A Muse Thing. He explores the relationship between poet and muse in terms of writing the poem we often hear about the inspiration for a poem, but Geraint is reading a poem about the creative process of transferring inspiration to verse. His next poem is about asbestos, which is considerably less dangerous. He applies it to the context of the snow as he says Im too young to know what asbestos is, but Im going to assume its some kind of white powder. Which as we all know never fuels poetry usually.

Geraints third poem is uncomfortably linked to his last, as it concerns the recent crisis in Haiti, and the loss of life in the earthquake there. In a fourth and final poem, Geraint returns to his first theme, telling us that he wants to write a fragment, like his favourite poet Wilfred Owen (no relation), and reads us a much more cheerful poem. Quite a variety on show here, enjoy!