Our very own poem, Our very own poet

VERSE SURPRISE

A hypothetical question for you. You're given the gift of all the time and money you need to go to an unlimited supply of live entertainment. With the catch that everything you see must fall within only one of these four categories - sport, music, drama or comedy.  Which do you choose?

For me the answer is always easy.  Music.  Much as I love the other three, much as they've all provided me with some amazing memories, it's no contest.  There are no highs like the highs I've had from a couple hours of watching and listening and moving to the sounds of Dallahan or Le Vent du Nord or Blazin' Fiddles or Stephanie Trick or Mr Sipp or the 3 geniuses that comprise the mighty Lau or.... the list goes on and on (but always ends with Lau).

But there's a genre missing from my list, as last night's gig reminded me.  Spoken Word, Poetry, Storytelling, it goes by various names, but can have its own way of providing those special moments in life.  I've not been to all that many across the years.  Luke Wright was a fairly recent discovery, but the poetry gig that's stuck most in my head was over 20 years ago, courtesy of a friend who took us along to see a man called Henry Normal. And we became fans, read his books, found ourselves quoting lines to each other at odd moments.

You might not know the name, or his poetry, but you will be familiar with much of his other work. Along with Steve Coogan he set up Baby Cow Productions and among his many credits as writer and/or producer are shows like The Royle Family, Gavin and Stacey, Red Dwarf, Alan Partridge and the feature film Philomena.  Not a bad list.

But now he's left TV behind and is back writing and performing as a poet.  His appearance in the Poetry Cafe in London near enough coincided with our wedding anniversary, which seemed like a good enough excuse to make the trip. I was looking forward to seeing him again, wholly unaware of just how special a night it would be.

Because Barbara got in touch with Henry, asking if he'd give us a mention on the night.  To her surprise he not only said he would, but he'd write a poem just for us as well.  I was in the dark about this until the night itself and we had a  chat with Mr Normal before the show.  It was a hilarious and moving night , the (our!) poem was wonderful, and Henry is a lovely,lovely man.

You'd probably think that was the best bit of the night, but no.  If you know Barbara you'll know she's pretty much the open book type, always honest, her emotions writ large upon her features.  But she kept this a secret from me without a hint of it escaping.  You can't imagine how proud I am that she's finally, after all these years, achieved a level of deceitfulness to match my own....

As for the poem, well here's a photo of the copy he presented us with, and a transcript in case the original is hard to read.  Enjoy.  We did.

MOT for the 21st WEDDING ANNIVERSARY of

Barbara and Blyth Crawford

MOT

Marriage on track

Mutual ownership treaty

Membership of team

Made of trust

Marvel of tolerance

Merger of two

Ministry of Tenderness

Mate on tap

or

MOT

Misery owned twice

Mad oath taken

Match own troubles

Murderer of time

Monogamy only token

Malevolent odious twin

Malign other twat

Must order termination