BELLO BARD BAGS POETRY WORLD CUP - Courier Sun 12/8/2010

A strong showing by Bellingen poets at the 2010 Nimbin Performance Poetry World Cup was capped when Hydes Creek’s Elizabeth Routledge won the cup, or half of it; the judges were unable to decide on a single winner, and split first prize between Elizabeth and Sydney’s Tug Dumbly.

The other trophy on offer, the coveted people’s choice award, was also won by a Bellingen poet: Craig “The Darkwood Clarion” Nelson, whose persuasive paean to the power of P proved profoundly popular with the punters.

The event held over the last weekend of July, attracted a field of 48 poets from as far afield as Canada, the UK and Ireland, as well as contingents from each of Australia’s capital cities.

Northern NSW was represented by Bellingen and, of course, Nimbin, which boasts the highest density of performance poets per head of population in the southern hemisphere. The standard of poeting was extremely high, and the competitors included three former winners, of which only one (Tug) made it through to the final.

The Bellingen team comprised of four poets – Liz, Craig, Brian Hawkins of Boggy creek and Fiona Kendall from east Bellingen (also called Sawtell) – as well as around a dozen support personnel in the form of psychologists, massage therapists, life coaches, groupies and a babe-in-arms.

Unfortunately there were more poets than prizes, and two of the Bello bards went home empty handed.

However Brain would certainly have won “best hat” , had such award existed, for a creation adorned with hard-earned lyrebird feathers (those birds can run!). Similarly, had there been a prize for best prop, it would surely have gone to Fiona, who delivered her powerful “Confessions of a single mother” from inside an ornate confessional box.

Hundreds of Nimbonians and visitors crammed into the memorial hall for Sunday night’s final, and were royally entertained by a diverse company of poets.

Liz’s winning poem, “Fresh Meat and Intercourse”, is a funny, biting and tender meditation on love and sex, particularly as manifested in a small town. It elicited hoels and guffaws of recognition from the audience, and was worthy winner of what most veterans agreed was the best Performance Poetry World Cup ever.

You can hear Liz and Craig do their winning poem at this month’s Bello Bards poetry night, on 27th August ( free entry, venue TBA – check http://bellobards,blogspot.com/ for updates. Alternatively, the video of the final will shortly be online at www.nimbinpoetry.com.