…find a voice for your poem

As I’ve said before, I think every poem has a voice. When we read and perform poems we bring them to life, so it’s worth trying different ways of performing the poem until you get the best voice for it. I won’t say ‘right’ voice; it’s what works best for you, and that might not be the same for everyone.

You have to try them out loud, so why not look at my poem, ‘The Footballer’s Prayer’, and see if you can come up with the best way of performing it!

Try and think of things like:

• Rhythm
• Beat
• Expression
• Tone of voice
• Loudness or quietness of your voice
• Speed of delivery
• The mood of the poem
• The character(s) in the poem
• Repetition – why not find a line that you like and repeat it several times?

Remember, every word is important. Poets take time over their words when writing them so it’s important to make sure that every word is performed.

I would encourage you to read the poem six or seven times at least and then think about ways of performing. That way, once you are a little familiar with the lines and layout of the poem you can concentrate on the feel of the words and how to best perform them, rather than concentrating on getting the words right.

The footballer’s prayer

Let us play …

Our team
Which art eleven
Hallowed be thy game
Our match be won
Their score be none
On turf – as we score at least seven
Give us today
No daily red card
And forgive us our lost passes
As we forgive those
Who lose passes against us
Lead us not into retaliation
And deliver us from penalties
For three is the kick off
The power and the scorer
For ever and ever

Full time

Now let’s try and write a simple performance poem and find a voice for it.

STEP 1: Start with the line – ‘NO WAY REFEREE!’

Say it out loud as a crowd might say it!

STEP 2: Make a list of the things the referee has got wrong, the decisions that should have been:

‘Should have been a penalty.’

‘Should have been a yellow card,’ etc.

It’s more effective if you write it as it is said:

‘Shuddabinnapenaltee.’

‘Shuddabinnayellacard.’

STEP 3: Now add ‘NO WAY REFEREE’ in between each line – hence …

‘NO WAY REFEREE – SHUDDABINNAPENALTEE.’

‘NO WAY REFEREE – SHUDDABINNAYELLACARD.’

‘NO WAY REFEREE – SHUDDABINNAFREEKICK.’

‘NO WAY REFEREE – SHUDDABINNAGOAL.’

Four lines work well as a verse, try writing two or three verses.

STEP 4: Say them out loud – get the rhythm and volume!

STEP 5: Add a chorus – for instance:

‘SPECSAVERS! SPECSAVERS!

SHUDDAGONE TO SPECSAVERS!’

Perform this in the voice of annoyed FANS.

STEP 6: Put it all together so you have a verse / chorus / verse / chorus

Exaggerate the rhythms and have fun with it!

You could even start and end with a whistle!

Easy, isn’t it?!