“I'm tall, quiet and logical, so my
poetry is short, loud and nonsense.”
In pink tinted glasses and bohemian
beanie, James G. Laws has a vivacious stage presence as he strolls confidently up and down,
eyeing the audience and addressing its members directly. His poetry is powerful
and I enjoy the way his words flow freely as though effortlessly conjured in an
instant.
In the
next moment, a short story begins with such a strong character presence that its author, Laurie Cusack, becomes the protagonist, yelling words like “Bring it on” and “bastards”
with so much vivacity I almost believe he's a recounting a personal
event instead of offering us a work of fiction. He impersonates each character, even embodying
the not-so-perfect nun as she enters the tale. His tone of his voice varies
to convey the shifts in mood and character.
The works
that follow bring different cultures to life. In Zeandrick Oliver's wonderful
South-African accent, the rhymes fall in a new and appealing manner. A trip to
Uganda is told using the dialect of its people by Emma Conway in her tartan skirt and
round rimmed glasses. I love that I can understand words she uses - and the broken
manner of her poetry illustrates perfectly the struggle of speaking an
unfamiliar language.
To close,
we’re treated to a rather morbid, but highly amusing piece by Richard Byrt. The poem plays on rhymes, becomes fairly strange and ends simply with: “I didn't mean to kill you”,
leaving the audience applauding between fits of laughter.
May
Ouma
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