“Grapple” performed, or rather recited, by poet FlippantRemarks, was on at the Peer Hat in Faraday Street in Manchester’s Northern Quarter on Saturday 4th July.
Sadly, only a handful of us were there, but that didn’t diminish the fantastic delivery.
The poems varied greatly in rhythm and structure, unconstrained by conventional rhyme schemes, yet all of them felt deeply personal. If iambic pentameters or the more usual ABAB rhyming scheme are your bag, don’t be upset.
We weren’t privy to the poems’ titles, but (if I might be allowed):
- Empty House beautifully captured how it feels to empty a house where you lived previously with mum and dad, and now both have been called to glory.
- Missing Cat explored the sense of loss, when said cat has gone.
- Recruitment was bittersweet as the poet was turned down for the RAF, and went into later explorations why.
- England served a double-edged elegy for how England was and is now.
Everything about the performance came from the heart. It was based on real life experience and was at times bittersweet – and (call me old-fashioned) not an F or C word was heard.
There is one more performance at the Seven Oaks in Manchester on July 5th, before he moves on to Shaftesbury.
Paul Schofield for Canal Street Online.