Performance Poetry

It was Cafe Create night last night. 80 guests and some great live fun including an excellent set from Atlum Schema. Follow the link to listen to his tunes. Next Cafe November 18th.

For the first time for ages I dusted off my poetry challenge act. I used to do this in ten minutes but allowed myself the luxury of nearly an hour last night. Audience throw out a theme and some words and I have to write a poem including them all. It has to work and be relevant and rhyme and be performed properly.

Last night's theme:

An Ode to Ermantrude

Required words (never work with an intellectual audience; I hadn't heard of all of these):

Idiosyncratic
Pleonasm
Discombobulated
Asparagus
Spasm
Ubiquitous
Stratification
Inenarable (no idea; sorry)
Procrastinating
Blogging
Photosynthesising
Danger Mouse
Funky

An Ode to Ermantrude
Milk production - turned eratic
A herd that's idiosyncratic
There's no money if lactation
Doesn't feed our dairy nation

Perhaps we should look at other ways
To wet our cornflakes - early days
But spam is not ubiquitous
You can't latte asparagus

Non-dairy products make me sated
Coffee discombobulated
'Sorry to have kept you waiting'
Starbucks are procrastinating

My barister's mochachino
Isn't milky - what does he know?
Cafe culture makes me spasm
Ful of instant pleonasm

Forgive me - I'm a lactose junky
It's non-dairy; it's not funky
Here's a little country parable
Can we call it inen arable?

Semi-skimmed just floats our nation
It's organic stratification
Milk is just this nation's sogging
Tell the world; commencing blogging

So my friends while I'm surmising
Grass is photosynthesising
White liquid's needed - every house
I'll even include Danger Mouse

Sorry if you think it rude
To read an ode to Ermantrude
But without milk I'll tell you now
She's just another silly cow

(St - Cafe Create 23/9/05)