UoG students launch the 2018 Cheltenham Poetry Festival in style
21st April 2018
Creative Writers at the University of Gloucestershire last week kicked off the 2018 Cheltenham Poetry Festival with two great events in Cheltenham bars. Scores of people attended Bar Room Bards at the Railway Inn, hearing performances of classic bar-themed poems, including readings from a disheveled Bukowski, an elegant Yeats, and a mustachioed Rudyard Kipling whose rendition of “Gentlemen Rankers” involved a mass sing along.
There were several competitions on the night, and congratulations to the winners who have now been contacted by email. See the bottom of this post for the answers.
The evening also produced a poem, based on “things you only say or do after you’ve been drinking”:
I say I love you, I love you, I love you
I say let’s go to Cotswold Kebab
I say I’m totally straight
I say let’s make plans to do that thing
I chat breeze, flossin
I say let’s get cocktails
I fall over, like, 17 times
I talk to you about Dumbledore
And I am crying!
I’m doing the Lounge dance
I hug people
I say Tinos and don’t even know what it means
I say I’m totally straight
I say I want egg fried rice
I say Regina Spektor broke my foot
And I say I love you
I say I love you
I say let’s get cocktails
I say, I’ll message you in the morning
Oh, and there was this collectively written… poem:
One night I went to the Railway Inn
And I heard the most terrible din
It used to be a famous sausage kitchen
Alrig’ me loven!
You’ve got a lush ass, oh wow!
When I see it, my mind goes pow.
And stops, sees, minds – gazes
Gosh. I haven’t felt like this in ages
Felt as if my stomach imploded
My heart melting, or my intestines exploded
Hair is brown, eyes are blue,
I wonder how much of this is true?
Order me a Maker’s Mark and coke
Get over ‘ere cuz u is woke
One day I saw her clear as night
And stepped up close to hold her tight
She gave a laugh. She gave a cry.
She said, I’ll never say goodbye
But I knew that was a bluff
You know that fake beer? Duff
She said, Sometimes I follow through
If you get too near it’ll be on you
Then the barrel of Skinner’s gun kissed my cheek
And he told me my Duff was [illegible]
I said, “You really missed the meme there.”
And he: “Eh, what do I care?”
“I love democracy, I love the republic,” said I.
“Have you ever played Devil may cry?”
Cells dovetail in strange cravings,
And leave us cracked in love’s crazy pavings.
Hmmm.
Then, on Thursday night, attention turned to the inaugural Cheltenham Story Slam (above), where a number of UoG stars competed for the prizes. It was a splendid evening, hosted excellently by performance poet Chloe Jacquet. We were well represented with Rod Griffiths, Hannah Stubbs, Elliot Dallow, Eleanor Winterbottom, Isabella Gartside, Asha Sutton, and Claire Harrison all performing superbly. Eleanor Winterbottom qualified for the final, and special congratulations to Isabella Gartside, who was overall runner up, and to Claire Harrison, who won the whole competition!
Thanks to everyone who attended and supported these events. There are still loads of great events to come at the Poetry Festival, so do check out the full programme. Two UoG lecturers are in action soon: Lania Knight will be reading at 7pm on Sunday 22nd, and Angela France presents her multimedia poetry show, The Hill, at 7pm on Wednesday 25th. Both events are at the Cheltenham Playhouse.
Here are the competition answers:
The correct last lines for Emily Dickinson’s “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed” are:
To see the little Tippler
Leaning against the – sun!
The correct last lines for James Thomson’s “The Wine of Love: are:
He reeleth with his own heart,
That great rich vine.
The missing words from William Aytoun’s “The Empty Bottle” were:
A: bottle
B: beer
C: gush
D: shell
E: temple
The missing words from Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Tavern” were:
A: crest
B: chill
C: traveller
D: tend
E: good
Congratulations to all the prize winners who have been contacted by email this morning.