National Poetry Day

It is National Poetry Day. Of all the themed days of the year, this is one of my favourites. Yes, I think it even beats the international Speak Like a Pirate Day (September 19th).

This year the theme of National Poetry Day is Heroes and Heroines.

Tonight I'll be heading into Leicester for a poetry evening at the Writers' Club. Hopefully I'll be able to perform the following new piece (though of course without the hyperlinks):


Cutting with light

In the musty cinema
our awkwardness dissolved in darkness
and pale beams cut the smoke seeded air
of 1977

Gripping the worn velvet of the seats
our pupils huge and hormones coursing
we watched as knights sparked light
in an epic duel of right v wrong.

I read about it afterwards
That modulated double hum
ninety Hertz
and ninety-eight

with a Doppler shift thrown in
as Ben Burtt swung
his shotgun microphone
before the speaker stack

It was iconic from day one
The static hiss as beam hit beam
and heroes pitched their strength
was interference from a cathode ray

The crew would later
have to shush the stars
‘We put the noise in afterwards,’ they’d say
‘It’s just a sound man’s trickery.’

But in all our adolescent grey on grey
we’d have traded real life
in a flash
for such high-contrast clarity

To choose the narrow path
or let the dark side win
and know for certain
which was which

Or wracked and wreathed
in luminous blue pain
change sides
cast down the enemy

And when Vader’s helmet was removed
revealing a broken man
made whole by one good choice
were not our own half-sins healed also?