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The Belfast Poetry Cup: Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival 2008
After two generously beautiful sets of poetry from Lemn Sissay, the award-winning poet in residence at London’s South Bank Arts Centre, it was the turn of local poets to take up the challenge of the Poetry Cup. 17 entrants battled it out over two rounds, performing poems of under one minute in length. In our format, poems are judged using a decibel meter, like the “Clapometer” of old, and the winner was Catherine Brogan.
Catherine performed a poem relating to her days of growing up in rural N Ireland and in the second round, a startlingly mesmeric piece about the ubiquity of the internet and the on-line experience. The audience whooped and victory was secured.
In second place, the mighty Jane Bailey offered us a sensitive, salutary insight into male drunkenness and in third place (for the third time in as many competitions) the redoubtable Phat Bob, with his nightmare of inherited intolerance in an unjust world.
Other performances of note came from Seamus Fox, Stephen Gharboui and Andrea de Silva. All in all, a fantastic night of poetry.
Thanks to Lemn for assisting in drawing the names for the cup, to Steven Tunley for all his help and Sean Kelly, Director of Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, for hosting the Poetry Cup once again. May I also thank all the poets who took part.
Conor Shields