The following poems are taken from my book 'Zygote Poems', available from my store.
‘She Craved Tinned Pineapple Chunks’, about a regular walk to Mutley Plain in Plymouth to find the aforementioned tinned pregnancy-craved pineapple, takes what could be deemed as a mundane task and puts it through my own lens of father-to-be-responsibility. Comparing myself to Roald Amundsen in the poem may seem like a giant leap, but as a doting father-to-be at the time, my quest felt just as critical to ensure the needs of both mother and baby were met. Producer, Veneer, reiterated the mood of the poem with a soundscape he said ‘...explored the sounds of trepidation and uncertainty; not everything is perfectly in time. In contrast to this, a beat does remain, hidden beneath the amalgamation of sounds, solid, stout. There are sounds of hospital machinery, counting down the nine months of pregnancy, and sounds reminiscent of space exploration and sci-fi movies. A trip into the unknown.’
‘Zygote Poem’ was prompted by an email newsletter I subscribed to comparing the size of my human-in-the-making to different fruits, vegetables, and seeds as it grew within the womb. I had recorded my daughter’s heartbeat from within the womb during an antenatal appointment, which Dragonfruit Planet incorporated into a soundscape that would capture the womb’s atmosphere and, as he puts it, ‘...was inspired by the heartbeat of an urban rainforest, existing within the heart of a modern day person, like a hidden forest of dreams beating away quietly beneath the surface of their daily thoughts and activities.’
Here's a video my friend Daniel Gaine helped me make for an old poem called 'Poor Horse Poem'.