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Rachel Pantechnicon

Updated: Mon, 11 Feb 2019 12:22 pm

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Biography

Has read her poetry on Radio 1, Radio 3 and Radio 4, and is still waiting for Radio 2 to call. Rachel is many things: the author of the story-books about Cheesegrater Leg-Iron Lion; the winner of the Glastonbury Festival Slam 2004 (despite being the only person on site wearing court shoes); the most famous resident of Motspur Park since Jacko in 'Brush Strokes'. She is also the only poet ever to have been turned down by Burning Eye. "Technicolour suburban entertainment" - John Hegley "I was weeing myself" - Sue Perkins "I love Rachel Pantechnicon" - Josie Long ***** - Three Weeks magazine, Edinburgh Fringe

Samples

LADY OF SHALOTT DAY Don’t you hate it when it’s Lady of Shalott Day? Don’t you don’t you? Tirra lira tirra lira goes the alarm on my bedside cabinet and here’s one problem that can’t be solved by reaching out and grabbing it – because today is Lady of Shalott Day, only once a year, when you have to go into work in all your Lady of Shalott gear and if you forget and wear your cardigan and your pop-socks you have to put some money in the Lady of Shalott box. And there’s Derek from Wages in his armour and his stupid plume making a tapestry of the timesheets in the next-door room; and it’s rosemary for remembrance a pomegranate in your sandwich-box when all you want’s a Penguin biscuit but you daren’t risk it, not at all. And meanwhile in the typing-pool we’re not allowed to look directly at our typewriter keys – the Qs the Ws the Es the Rs the Ts – we have to look at them in a mirror; and it’s rosemary for remembrance Tippex for typing-errors. And we’re not allowed to look directly at the window-cleaner cleaning windows leaning on a major supporting pillar with his little ukulele singing Tirra lira and his Lonsdale sweatshirt reading Eladsnol. But it’s nice when you go home for a shower where a shower-curtain hangs aslant the bath and the eight-hour Shalottathon is on with Philip Schofield as King Arth * * * * * * * FOUR MAGNOLIA WALLS Four magnolia walls was all I wanted, four magnolia walls was all I wanted. Once you were a geography teacher, now you are a decorator. All I wanted was my four magnolia walls and what I didn’t want was what I got: you painted me a mural of a diagram of an aerial view of a bird’s-foot delta – alluvial deposits yellow, bright blue for the water, the course of the river corresponding to an existing hairline crack. Geography teacher decorator, geography teacher decorator, geography teacher decorator, don’t come back. All I wanted in my bathroom was the normal style of tiling – white tiles, horizontal, every seventeenth tile with a picture of a seashell. What I didn’t want was every seashell annotated in Humbrol paint, approximately dated to its nearest geological era, telling me if it’s a bivalve, a brachiopod or a lamellibranch. Geography teacher decorator, geography teacher decorator, geography teacher decorator, don’t come back. Underneath the ceiling, ornamental frieze: stencilled lettering spelling out the principal industries of the principal towns in Northamptonshire – Wellingborough: boots & shoes Kettering: boots & shoes too Corby: steel Brackley: wool Daventry: unknown. Geography teacher decorator, geography teacher decorator, geography teacher decorator, actually that’s quite useful – could you do me something similar with Rutland in the vestibule? * * * * * * * GREAT GOD QUETZALCOATL GREEN HOT-WATER BOTTLE COVER No more eiderdowns for me, no extra sheets or electric socks - there’s a new accoutrement in my blanket-box: I’ve got a great god Quetzalcoatl green hot-water bottle cover - a present from my aunt and uncle from their trip to Central America – Uncle Barry Auntie Erica, both explorers, that’s how they met - they both simultaneously discovered the source of the River Ganges. Half an hour either way, they’d’ve missed each other, wouldn’t have met. Life’s funny like that. Anyway, they said 'Rachel, we’ve got you a great god Quetzalcoatl green hot-water bottle cover. We hope you like it - it was either that or a pillowcase shaped like the god of spring with a skull for a face and his liver on the outside, but they didn’t do them in lavender and we know you like lavender.' But I like my great god Quetzalcoatl green hot-water bottle cover: one half’s feathery, the other half’s scaly, because of the dual nature of the deity - part bird, part snake, part snake, part bird. The feathery half keeps me awake, tickles my middle, makes me laugh; the scaly half gives me nightmares about lizards and in that respect it’s a lot like life – partly nice and partly nasty. * * * * * * * * * * * * * HOOTING IN THE DORMITORY Have you forgotten those nights in the dormitory? Didn’t we have a hoot? Hooting like owls on the end of a promontory, each night eight hours of unlimited jollity - Didn’t we have a hoot? Part One: When Gwendoline brought a tree into school - into the dorm, a tree - and we disguised it as one of the girls, smuggled it into Geology. Mrs Septimus didn’t suspect us, not for one second, until “Will that girl with the colony of spoonbills up in the tip-topmost bough of her uppermost branches please see me after the lesson. And do take off that ridiculous No Poaching sign.” Hoot hoot hoot hoot hooting in the dormitory Part Two: When Jennifer brought a hermit into school - an anchorite, if you will - and we disguised him as one of the girls, smuggled him into Spanish Conversation. Mrs Septimus didn’t suspect us, not for one second, until “Will that girl on the pallet of straw with her head crudely cushioned on a stack of Old Moore’s Almanacs please see me after the lesson. And do stop fashioning rudimentary furniture from tea-chests. Wad of dry bread - spit it out.” Hoot hoot hoot hoot hooting all night in the dormitory except at midnight when we’re feasting in the dormitory - feasting on yeast-extract and jam-sandwiches, crisps and Dundee cake, piping hot. Spoonbill paté? Bit of straw? Oh go on then, why not? * * * * * * * * * * * * * TEENYBOP THEOLOGIAN When I was teenage - difficult age - I was into the Protestant Reformers: posters of Calvin and Zwingli on my wall, autographed copy of the Papal Bull (“To Rachel, love Leo X, PS you’re excommunicated”). My enthusiasm could never be sated: on the phone to my friend Katie - “Did you see him yesterday? You know who - in the churchyard at Wittenberg - isn’t he dead gorgeous though?” Oh Saturday morning, meeting Katie in the Wimpy or the Golden Egg - tartan trousers halfway up our legs, tartan armbands, tartan anklesocks, tartan scarf saying “I Love John Knox” - because this week in Jackie they did Presbyterians (Questionnaire: How Presbyterian Are You?) and now we’re doing scrapbooks. I said to Katie “I know who you fancy” “Who?” she says “That bloke out of the Lollards” I say “No I do not, Rachel you old moo - anyway, I believed in rejecting the doctrine of transubstantiation before you.” Oh Saturday night, youth-club disco, can of Tizer in my hand growing warm - boy comes up to me, looks at my t-shirt, says “Hello, I see you’re into Reform” “Might be” I say “Yes, me too - what do you think of the Edict of Worms?” “It’s all right” I say “Yes, it’s good, isn’t it? What do you think of the Edict of Nantes?” So I slapped him round the face - next he’d be asking me if I wanted to dance. But he was all right, though - really quite nice and he did look a little like Martin Luther - but don’t they all under the disco lights? * * * * * * * * * * * * * * DON”T HURT YOUR COCCYX My mother bounced me on her knee - in fact she bounced me on them both, 1, 2, 1, 2, alternately, to cut down the wear on any one kneecap. “All right, Rachel,” she said “let’s recap the things I told you, little lady – always make sure that your cot is tidy, don’t bolt your rusks at breakfast-time and the greatest of the three, most importantly, look after your coccyx - it’s the only one you’ve got.” And then she sat me down on the ground on the light brown carpet with the dark brown background, gave the telly half an hour to warm up – an old steam television with a spindle and a shuttle – and I watched a public information film with an animated squirrel saying “Always tell a grown-up if you think you’re going to hurt your coccyx; always wear a coccyx-guard on elastic round your middle, properly fitted if you're able, properly knitted, with your name on a label. Don't hurt your coccyx. God save the King." And when I went to visit my Grandfather Pantechnicon he told me that he'd lost his coccyx at the siege of Mafeking and he’d had a gold one put in its place but he still kept the old one, just in case – hung from a rafter in a jar it was company, you know, like a budgerigar. And when he blew in the little holes, he could use it to tune his guitar.

All poems are copyright of the originating author. Permission must be obtained before using or performing others' poems.

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Comments

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Isobel

Tue 19th Apr 2011 18:48

Thanks - that was just a bit of fun - it helps to see the funny side of shitty experiences - I do it all the time... x

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Isobel

Sun 17th Apr 2011 19:02

I thought as much you minx! Your artist friend is very talented indeed. The eyes have it though. The eyes are the mirror to the soul - they never age either. I'd love to make your acquaintance if you ever take to the stage at the Tudor. x

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Isobel

Fri 15th Apr 2011 18:04

You're looking a bit grubbier Rachel - maybe you just got back from Glastonbury...

I enjoyed reading your profile poems - they are very wacky and clever.

<Deleted User> (5593)

Tue 20th Jul 2010 13:20

Congrats on appearing (is that right?)on this weeks Radio 4's Poetry Please. Couldn't have happened to a nicer girl!

I assume it's on Listen Again if any one missed it.

<Deleted User> (4337)

Fri 26th Feb 2010 06:54

Cheers for your comments on my Evil Weevils, Miss Rachel. Just re-read your Lady of Shalott Day; crackin' stuff. I'm tempted to do a sort of Spring Onion Woman response but I have neither time nor moral fibre at this moment. Catch you soon. Iain ;o)

<Deleted User> (4337)

Sat 20th Feb 2010 00:24

I recall your House of Crisps performance at The People Under the Stairs. It was ace. Cheers. xx

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Tomás Ó Cárthaigh

Mon 24th Aug 2009 14:48

"Four Magnolia Walls" tells us that people should be just people, not trying to be sophisticated or whatever...

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winston plowes

Mon 3rd Aug 2009 15:12

Hi there. No blog entries? Is this an one poem personal ad? Can we see some blog entries so we can comment? Winston

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Dave D Poet Rhumour

Mon 27th Jul 2009 15:38

Hi Rachel - I must seek guidance from you on penning the purrfect cat motivational poem! ;) I confess my own cat scribes feature fur balls rather than address them, hehe. Best wishes

Dave

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barrie singleton

Sat 7th Jun 2008 20:22

Why no poems? Isn't that the idea/ Or have I missed something.

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Laura King (The Poet Laura-eate)

Mon 2nd Jun 2008 16:23

I can attest to the fact that Ms Pantechnicon is the best-dressed cat-motivational poetry writing poet on the poetry circuit!

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Tomás Ó Cárthaigh

Sun 13th Apr 2008 02:08

Poems to motivate cats? Should make interesting reading...

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Dave Morgan

Fri 16th Nov 2007 18:30

Hi Rachel, loved the before and after photos, see you're gracing many a stage, hopeyou can make it to Bolton again, people still speak of you in awe and reverence

Dave Morgan

Pete Crompton

Wed 7th Nov 2007 15:42

Welcome!

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