John Cooper Clarke is from the north of England and is foremost amongst a group of poets known as "punk poets" whose work really gained notoriety in the mid 1970's to mid eighties and is now enjoying a resurgent interest this link http://www.cyberspike.com/clarke/ is to his home page Here's 2 of his poems as a taster The first one is called "readers wives, its about normal housewives who allow their picture to be used in pornography magazines (trying to pose like nude glamour models) The second one is called "I married a monster from outer space" and is about the stupidity of racism when it turns its attention to mixed race couples readers' wives make a date with the brassy brides of britain the altogether ruder readers' wives who put down their needles and their knitting at the doorway to our dismal daily lives the fablon top scenarios of passion nipples peep through holes in leatherette they seem to be saying in their fashion 'I'm freezing charlie - haven't ya finished yet?' cold flesh the colour of potatoes in an instamatic living room of sin all the required apparatus too bad they couldn't fit her head in in latex pyjamas with bananas going ape their identities are cunningly disguised by a six-inch strip of insulation tape strategically stuck across their eyes wives from inverness to inner london prettiness and pimples co-exist pictorially wife-swapping with someone who's happily married to his wrist _____________________________ (I Married a) Monster from Outer Space The milky way she walks around All feet firmly off the ground Two worlds collide, two worlds collide Here comes the future bride Gimme a lift to the lunar base I wanna marry a monster from outer space I fell in love with an alien being whose skin was jelly - whose teeth were green she had the big bug eyes and the death-ray glare feet like water wings - purple hair I was over the moon - I asked her back to my place then I married the monster - from outer space The days were numbered - the nights were spent in a rent free furnished oxygen tent when a cyborg chef served up moon beams done super rapid on a laser beam I needed nutrition to keep up the pace when I married the monster from outer space We walked out - tentacle in hand you could sense that the earthlings would not understand they'd go.. nudge nudge ...when we got off the bus saying it's extra-terrestial - not like us and it's bad enough with another race but fuck me... a monster ...from outer space In a cybernetic fit of rage she pissed off to another age she lives in 1999 with her new boyfriend - a blob of slime each time I see her translucent face I remember the monster from outer space
I heard one of his songs recently in a bookshop & the lyrics were poignant & refreshing.It was good to hear someone's angst against the greed society we live in.
Hey I'm glad someone liked that, until I posted that I hadnt thought about John Cooper-Clarkes work in years and suddenly I found myself reciting one of his poems I met him once after a gig he did, and he's just as funny off stage as on it. Really glad someonelse has heard of him too. this is a poem by another favourite of mine John Hegley - a more recent poet - I've seen him about 4 times and I won a book of his poems for writing the funniest caption to a picture he drew just before the interval at his gig then he read everyones answers out and mine got the biggest laugh so I won anyway this is called "The price of art in Luton" On the bridge approaching the railway, the man was begging. I said draw me a dog and I'll give you a quid. So I gave him some paper and he did. And I said, there you go, mate, you can make money out of art! Will you sign it? As I handed him the one pound thirty-odd I had in my pocket, he informed me that the signed ones were a fiver
