One of the treasures of Strokestown, the inimitable Percy French lookalike and incomparable host, Pat Compton.
No joy, I'm afraid in the Percy French Prize. Despite having two entries in the final eight, I failed to make the top three. Judge Declan O'Brien said he scored the results on a combination of the humour of the poems, the technicality of the poems and the performance of the poems. This seems to be a fair way and under those criteria, I couldn't complain about the 1,2,3.
Sean Lyons won for the second year on the trot with his poem Sunburnt in Fuengerola. Perhaps not technically tight, but very very funny and easily the crowd's favourite.
Second was Baffle member Ian McDonald's Nama Sutra (great title!) Well crafted, again very funny and went down very well.
Third place was Dee Gaynor of Kent whose extremely funny fake tan experiences were well recounted in Browned Off.
Both Michael Moriarty and Martin Parker delivered excellent poems very well and if truth be told, second and third places could have gone to either of them.
For myself, I know I lose a lot by the performance. I get so nervous in case I stammer, that I stammer and in an art where rhythm is important, this impinges on the delivery. And looking back, they possibly weren't as funny as I had thought anyway!!
But I've had great success in the field of humorous verse and really I was thrilled to be nominated at all.
Serious poetry report coming later.
Dear Peter: You are "La Creme de la Creme"! And remember; it's always the same few each year often times until the judges decide to get dangerous! Honestly, Peter; you have so much talent perhaps your light is too bright. The judges need to wear sunglasses or something! You absolutely have some kind of panache and moxy to enter these contests; either that or you actually like playing hardball. Your talent is far greater than the sum of your parts. When we loose the award, like I did the dramatic award in high school by a tie that went to a second vote; one can get discourage and frantic. At least teenage girls can get this way. When entering any contest; remembering Van Gogh. He faired much better after pushing up the daisies. NOt that I believe this is your fate! Oh no, quite contraire my dear Peter! You have the right stuff; you just need a life coach or coach the judge. Bribes accepted here. Like VISA card! Application for Appreciation often means the old wine and dine. Anyhow, what I mean to say is this, I am not being mean; I appreciate so much your art of satire, and hyperbole; so funny; so decidedly talented. Besides, being thus nominated looks as though the judges will be considering your considerable talent in the near future. Your many legions of fans await with "bated breathe" (not the bated breath again). Helps to keep in with the judges (wink wink nudge nudge) if this is your quest your penultimate goal. Peter; don't you ever forget to keep on keeping on, don't give up! Keep on trucking those marvelous poems! With your raw talent and considerable technical expertise you'll be accepting those many awards on the podium in the near future. You wont have room in your castle for any more! Then you can pawn a few to me! Get a Poetry Life Coach! Visual it! Say it, Claim it, Own it. Please Youtube the whole experience for your many fans here!
ReplyDeleteHi Jane, love your sense of humour! Particularly emjoyed the 'legion of fans' scenario!
ReplyDeleteSeriously I don't have any burning desire to see my name up in lights and I'd run a mile at the thought of a life coach! I'm actually really enjoying myself at the moment!!
Ah no, Peadar, that's being unfair. Sometimes you don't know how funny something is until somebody else reads it or hears it. I thought the 1-2-3 was fair enough...
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