John Cooper Clarke

John Cooper Clarke - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"He is often referred to as a punk poet, having initially achieved recognition in the late 1970s amidst the flourishing punk movement. He performed as an opening act for such bands as The Sex Pistols, The Buzzcocks and Elvis Costello. His set was characterized by his lively, rapid-fire renditions of his poems, which were usually performed a capella."

When you are born on Rabbie Burns day, 25th January, it would be hard not to become a famous performance poet. I grew up on the poetry of Robert Burns and it was designed to be performed and quoted. John Cooper Clarke has always been a favourite of mine because he rocket launched poetry back into the popular arena and made it the pwerful communication medium it always was. I still have my big This is Chicken Town mounted poster and I still love his poetry. He made poetry as big as pop music and that is how it should be, but he knew how to perform. You can't fake it.

We have a similar tradition in Australia called Bush Poetry. You have to get up there and perform it. It's not a reading. It is the essence of communication from the literary mind to the people. It is very dynamic. Poetry is quite strong is SA and we have some strong poets who are all very ready and very good at performing their poetry. They can draw you in and add to you by sharing their poetry performances. Victoria, too, is carrying on our tradition:

Surge in popularity for bush poetry