We came, we saw, we kicked England’s arse!

Just a word about the tri-nations poetry slam at Bristol’s Poetry Festival, featuring Chris Brooke, John Davies, Nick Fisk and Hangetsu. The Welsh team came in second behind Scotland, but most importantly, ahead of England who woefully came in last.

This is not to belittle England’s performance at all. They read some fine stuff, particularly Ian Sills who read a most entertaining piece about being a thoroughly unlikely Eminem fan. There were two poems about cats, one from an Englishman, and one from the overall winning poet, Jenny Lindsay – a deserved winner.

There was the unusual sight of Valley boy John consuming not more than one shandy due to having to drive the minibus to and from the event, and in fairness, there was not one injury, except to Chris’s hand, although as far as I am aware, John cannot be blamed for this.

Overall it was a cracking night, with all the Welsh performances being recorded on video. I will have to speak to Chris about the possibility of including the footage on this site, which will be a first – video recording on the pure poetry site – whoever would have thought it??!

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