I suppose what I attempt to do is to connect to an audience. Which doesn’t sound very groundbreaking so far does it? But I am really interested in that relationship between entertainment and (if you like) the ‘high minded world of poetry’.

Therefore rhythm is important and the relationship that spoken word can have with singing for instance. To this end, I sometimes experiment with alternating between the spoken and sung word within the same piece. Hence, you can have 2 rhythms where you can intersperse still oblique references within an accessible framework.

On the theme of connecting, I do feel a poet should be able to bring you into their world as if they themselves have just discovered it for the first time, as if they are a character and it should be like a story where they don’t know the ending. This, I feel, creates warmth between me and the audience.

I use autobiography in an almost cut and paste way as I feel that is how I have received memories and therefore can come back via me as the vessel.

I will sometimes have two stories running within the one piece. The example being The Jump, where one story is an Evil Kneivel type character who is contemplating The Jump and we have the narrative that twists back to his childhood, his family and his missus. We then have the chorus, which is sung and we are unsure whose story this is, and whose memories and pleas. In construction I was thinking of two separate things but I put them together as I feel once again the form can take us into somewhere where blokes struggle to articulate stuff. So, in the end it’s ultimately sad, poignant and destructive.

In my dream it’s slow motion

The leap into infinity

You’ll either make it or you wont

 

‘A man and a motor

Will attempt to defy gravity

A boy will try to fly’

 

 The throng assembled to see the crash

To witness the bloodshed

‘hey why you here ?’

‘why not was else is there to do?’

 

(sung)

All I need for this time

In life

We used to laugh and play and all the time you’d cry

 

C’mon

C’mon call me baby

When your life

Is full of life

C’mon call

(From Jump by Tony Curry)

Within the delivery of poetry I am interested in the almost higher states you can get into;  unlocking your unconscious. Therefore, there is an obvious relationship between myself and the audience and I try to bring the audience into my world and say ‘Strap in people, we’re going on a journey!’

 I also enjoy how Hip Hop is constructed with its use of freestyle; I therefore experiment with (again) letting go and trying to unlock the unconscious. Transference of energy can be great for this. My mate ‘The Arse’, has these brilliant parties where, with the aid of a fire and a guitar, everyone is encouraged to free form. It can be mind-blowing cathartic stuff and you never know what’s going to come out. The key is trying to unlock it and then getting back there somehow.

I feel that I use everyday things, stories that most people could relate to as a way in, but where you can then peel away the outer story layers to talk about other things. Therefore, The Gorilla on Ecstasy is, on one level, a story about a gorilla who goes out and gets high. For me though it was about finding an entertaining surreal medium to explore feelings we all have sometimes about going out and getting it wrong and feeling out of place.

He strode in confident

A Gorilla at ease

 

The crowd parted as he made his way to the bar

 

‘I’ll have a pint of Starba..

A pint of Starbil..

Heineken !’

He blurted out,

 

He didn’t pay

 

He quickly became the object of fascination

Which was an aspect he’d never experienced

To be truthful

His prime mates found him rather dull

 

Girls giggled as he swung them above his head,

They shrieked in mock horror,

As he held them close

What a guy !

 

Fellas were less impressed

‘lets see who we have under here’

they barked at their mates,

wishing to analyse,

 

the big hairy fella resisted

‘Oi ! Lads give us a break,

I am a Gorilla,

No more,

No less,

 

He was less self conscious in the club,

This ethereal world was a happy hunting ground,

 

The balconies and gantries,

Were just like home,

He fondled,

And was fondled,

Just like home

 

At 2 minutes to 1

The E kicked in

He was now off in a spirit of togetherness

He’d never given so much love,

Nor received so much,

 

The beats pulsated

And he was back once more in his Mother’s womb

‘Aaaah’ he sighed ‘why did I ever leave ?’

‘I love you Mum’

he decreed to a buxom punter

and placed his head on her ample bosom

 

‘You daft Ape’ she replied,

but cuddled him in spite of herself

he was just too hairy

hot and hairy,

 

he was coming down

and Jean suggested

they roll a fat one in the ‘chill out zone’

 

the 4^th puff

and a smile was etched on his face

‘you know Jean

I feel on top of the World

Sort of King of the Jungle’

 

‘I know  love

but don’t forget

there’s work on Monday’

 

 

‘mmmm’ he mused.

(The gorilla was on ecstacy by Tony Curry)

 

http://www.writeoutloud.net/poets/tonycurry