Award-winning performance poet Tim King is this year’s Bard of Exeter and the much loved host of Exeter’s most popular poetry/spoken word night, Taking the Mic. In April he was due to perform at Poetry in the Pub at the Lamb Inn, in Sandford. But when lockdown put paid to that event, Ysella Sims decided to interview him digitally.
I have to start by asking how you are finding lockdown? Is it affecting your creativity?
I'm missing seeing people but I have plenty to keep me busy. I have a heightened sense of a need for human contact which may feed into my work in the near future – I have the desire to do something which takes the words out of poetry and communicates through the more universal music of breath and voice alone.
Meanwhile, I'm running my monthly open mic online, which feels a little odd because it's such a different (and very much poorer) environment. I'm concerned that folk might get the idea that Zoom meetings convey the full flavour of Spoken Word. I'm also feeling a little guilty that I'm having a comparatively easy time. That said, I've had a lot of paying work cancelled, so I can't feel too guilty!
The bardship is something of a mixed blessing during lock-down as I'd planned to leverage my year-long tenure to further my performance career. I find having to do things digitally quite challenging. For me, the visceral connection of live performance is definitely what it's all about.
How would you describe what you do?
I'm a poet, writer, performer, host and educator, with a focus on encouraging others to embrace the freedoms of Spoken Word. My work has different strands, so, for example, I see hosting events as quite separate to performing or writing.
Do you find there are themes that you return to in your work? Do you have a favourite word or words?
I like to use words in combination, so probably the answer should be no. That said, I was delighted to discover the word transpicuous a few years back and I sometimes enjoy inventing words – clervidity is one of mine. I also like “got” and “nice” because they're simple and direct and I feel sorry for them. Essentially words are intricately elaborated grunts. It seems a bit weird to fetishise them.
I grew up on a blue-collar council estate just North of London in the 60s and 70s. The culture was fairly toxic but the people were, by and large, innocent. Experience colours everything. Recurrent themes in my work include; absurd formal constraints, child sexual abuse, all forms of prejudice and social justice. I suspect the formal constraints often serve as a metaphor for the other themes. I also use rhyme a fair amount – partly because I enjoy it but also because it has an innate musicality; soothing and relaxing the listener and creating fertile ground for more challenging messages to take root. The original lyric to Rock-a-bye-Baby exemplifies my approach... or, more correctly, one of my approaches.
One of the key rules I've made for myself is that anything I make public has to have initially delighted and surprised me in some way. So I continually try to step out of my comfort zone to keep things fresh – invent new constraints or experiment with forms I've not worked with before. Once it becomes too familiar it's time to move on.
This is a fairly abstract question, but what do you think ‘Poetry’ is?
The meticulous curation of words
Are there elements that can help to make a ‘good’ poem?
An arresting first line. A strong conclusion. A mind-altering journey in between. Editing. A lack of waffle. Maybe a waffle iron. Something that puts a picture into someone else's head – or permanently erases one that has been there for a long time. Discipline. Structure. Freedom. The element of surprise. An unassailable truth.
Have you had to overcome any barriers in order to write?
Only myself. Everyone who writes has to get over themselves and learn to see their situation as simultaneously both unique and ordinary. They also have to give themselves permission to write without judgement. It's an ongoing process. It's also important to feel it's okay not to write sometimes. Writer's block thrives on the notion that it's imperative to write something. It really isn't. Let it go.
Is there a piece of advice that somebody has given you that has been particularly helpful or do you have your own that you pass on?
It's not so much advice as encouragement that I pass on, but I do often tell people that they're already brilliant at communicating, that they've been doing it effectively since they were born and there's absolutely no reason to doubt their skill with language. I then usually set them an impossible task which they succeed in brilliantly!
Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Kate Bush (it's my dream and yes, it's a very small party)
Fair enough! Can you tell us a joke?
Q. Why is a moth fluttering around a candle like a five bar gate?
A. Because if it keeps on it singes its wings.
Ha, ha, ha! And a secret?
I've spent an evening at Sting's secret Tuscan villa
Useful links
Check out the Taking The Mic Facebook page for details of the weekly digital drop in and monthly Forsaking the Mic sessions.
Learn more about Tim here, read some of his work here and watch him in full flow here.
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