Poetry Corner

Description

A host interviews a poet in the style of a late night Radio 4 arts show called Poetry Corner, with the poet’s name given by the audience. They discuss poems from the poet’s recent book. The rest of the cast take it in turns to read (improvise) poems from the book in the style of a poetry reading. No matter how awful the poems the poet and interview react as if they are amazing.

Example

Interviewer: Welcome. Today on the programme we have the wonderful poet Pandarus Sentinel. Pandarus, you wanted to start with your most well-known poem, could you tell us about it?

Pandarus: Yes of course. I wrote this poem at a very important, perhaps the most important, time in my life. I’d just tried coffee for the first time. I wrote this poem: Caffeine

Interviewer: And we’re going to hear that poem now.

First player:

                                                                             Caffeine.

                                               Caffeine is in the beans.

Are the beans for me? 

I thought I liked tea.

                But then you came

                           what’s in your name? 

A cappucino, or a latte

            I’m not sure about this, OK?

     Too much of a buzz,

                                                                                    my mouth tastes of fuzz.

                               I go into the caff,

And say:                                      Coffee please, decaf.

Interviewer: Wonderful.

Tips for playing

• Try to give each poem a different style. If we’ve just seen serious go for street poet, if we’ve just seen English go French, if we’ve just had fast go slow.
• Try rhyming even if you think you can’t, it’s more fun than you think.
• Don’t dwell on the interview too long, try to get over to the poetry readings quicker.

Show Introduction

“This game is called Poetry Corner. In this game we have a famous poet being interviewed, and the other players are going to make up the poems. Can I get suggestions of a name for our poet?”

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