Who thinks poetry is boring?

Me too.

Or at least I did. I used to think poetry was boring because that’s how it was at school. Old poetry books delivery either incomprehensible old English or slow sad First World Poems about total misery. Not what you’re after as an excitable 11-year-old.

But that all changed when I saw performance poetry. Gripping, gritty honest words about subjects most of us are too shy to talk about. Your typical performance poet slices open their heart so you don’t have to. They torture themselves for us.

It’s a thrilling experience. Like a music gig, but with a silent room hanging on the performer’s every word. It’s difficult to put it into words how mesmerising performance poetry actually is. If you’ve experience it, you will know.

You can experience humour (I’ve seen so many people laugh) and you can experience tears (my god, I’ve seen a lot of people cry too) – but it always ends with this kind of euphoric happiness filling the room. People can’t get enough of it.

I think we can all acknowledge that poetry – the word itself – has a bad image. It comes with baggage. It can turn people off.

That’s why you often see the term spoken word used instead. Less stigma.

But ultimately it takes a leap of faith for you, the audience, to give this a go. To come along and see someone deliver their poetry, often mesmerised, just a few feet in front of you.

It’s the experience you never knew you needed – and that you wished you had tasted sooner.

Will you come to a show sometime?

Coming up, I’ve got two shows:

Friday, September 11, 2026 (7.30pm)

Rowan McCabe: Hard Knocks 

Artch Studios, Preston Pr1 8SD

Tickets from Skiddle

Saturday, September 19, 2026 (7.30pm)

Working Class: Toria Garbutt & Louise Exactly

Mercer Hall, Great Harwood BB6 7AL

Tickets from Ticket Source