Fox Populi

By Kate Fox

Click the 'Extracts' tab above to read our exclusive interview with Kate Fox, plus sample poems from the book.Fox Populi takes poetry on a hilarious, Creature Comforts-style journey through the crackly airwaves of contemporary culture. Radio-mic in hand, Kate Fox listens in on comedians and psychiatrists, Great North runners and nutters, and the staff of a call centre in modern-day Tynemouth. Herself a familiar voice on BBC TV and radio, this first full-length collection confirms Kate Fox's position as one of the UK's most popular poet-comedians.

"Funny, quirky and a wonderful writer."

Sarah Millican, stand-up comedian
"Self deprecating and wry throughout, this is poetry that is both accessible, true and wise."
The Crack

"Sylvia Plath channelling Victoria Wood"

Matt Harvey
Kate Fox is a poet, performer and comedian. Born in Bradford in 1975, she is the Poet in Residence on BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live. She has been the Poet in Residence for the BBC2 coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show, and for the Great North Run in 2011 and 2012. Her poems have been broadcast on the BBC2 Daily Politics show, BBC Online, Amnesty International and Radio 3's The Verb with Ian McMillan. Her one-woman Edinburgh Festival show, Kate Fox News, toured the UK in 2010-11 (4 stars, Sunday Telegraph). She has also appeared at several other major festivals including Latitude, Aldeburgh and Cheltenham. Her poems recently appeared in The Iron Book of Humorous Verse (Iron Press, 2010). She lives in Thirsk, and writes a weekly column for The Journal newspaper in Newcastle.
This book is also available as a eBook. Buy it from Amazon here.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Smokestack Books
• Release date: Sep 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9780957574779

Kate Fox

Kate Fox is a stand-up poet, spoken word artist and broadcaster. She’s a regular contributor to Radio 3’s The Verb, has made two comedy series for Radio 4, been Poet in Residence for the Glastonbury Festival and the Great North Run and completed a PhD in stand-up comedy at the University of Leeds. Her books include Fox Populi, Chronotopia, The Oscillations and Where There’s Muck There’s Bras: True Stories of the North of England’s Women.

Book preview

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to the editors of the following publications, where some of these poems were first published – Aesthetica, Anon, Magma, Under the Radar; The Nude in Miss Mae’s Bedroom, (Biscuit, 2004), Ten Years On (New Writing North, 2008); Why I? (Zebra, 2005), Why Not I? (Zebra, 2009), We Are Not Stone (with Jenni Haukio, Ek Zuban 2007).

‘Our Ends in the North’, ‘Northern Voices’, ‘The Psychiatrist’s Confession’, ‘Female Bodyguard’, ‘Consultation’ and ‘One in a Million’ were commissioned by BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live; ‘The Draft’ was commissioned by Radio 4 Extra.

‘There is An Enemy’, ‘Stolen Stones’, ‘Opposite Sides of the Wall’, ‘Blessing’ and ‘Curse’ were written for All Along The Wall, a music and poetry show commissioned by Brampton Festival in 2009; ‘The Day I Became a Journalist’, ‘Eruption’, ‘No News Day’, ‘The Day I Became a Poet’ were written for Kate Fox News; ‘You Don’t Look Like a Runner’, ‘Fe Fi Fo Fum’, ‘Connected’, ‘Runners Block’, ‘Run’, ‘How to Do Fartlek Training’ and ‘Muscles’ were commissioned by Great North Run Culture, 2011.

Thanks to Arts Council England, New Writing North and the K Blundell Trust for financial awards at crucial points during the writing of these poems.

Author’s Note

Many of these poems were written to be read aloud by me on the radio or on a stage. Sometimes that leads to me being called a performance poet or (mainly if arts funding is involved) a ‘spoken word artist’. An alternative phrase for this, in certain circles, is ‘not a proper poet’. I’ve often been told my voice isn’t right. At a new school I was too posh, as a newsreader I was too Northern. But as a poet I read and listen with my voice, as well as speak with it, and love how reading words on a page allows my voice to temporarily harmonise with that of another writer despite our different vowels, rhythms and timbres. That’s why I love to read poems as much as hear them aloud and find the page/performance distinction problematic. I imagine attempting to do the harmonising out loud whilst another poet is reading their work in public though would lead to me being chucked out of events. Or at least, seated very, very far away from everybody else…

My Trouble With Line Breaks

Breathe then

here

and here

as you mouth the words in your head

then tell me again my poems are oral,

yours are for the page.

Let’s hear the respiration of your synapses,

St Augustine’s inaudible laugh.

Contents

Our Ends in the North

My Mother as a Day of the Week

Northern Voices

The Railway Children

Reflection

The Day I Became a Journalist

Heirloom

My Void Year

The Psychiatrist’s Confession

The Gag

The Maths

Pelt

Sveaborg

Nostalgie de la Boue

The Phone Book

There is an Enemy

Lots of Planets Have a North

Eruption

Women on the Radio

Caller 103 Wins the Madonna Tickets

Paralysis

Scientists

No News Day

The Day I Became a Poet

The Draft

Small Girlfriends

Experiencing Drawing my Foot

The Romantic Poet Becomes a Realist

The Lost Word

The Hand Reader

The Injured

How to Hurt a Masochist

Threshold

His Version

We Are Not Stones

The Pen

Stolen Stones

Opposite Sides of the Wall

Emin 8

Pigeon

Dead Pull

Blessing

Curse

Female Bodyguard

Rheology

Baubo

Grief Talking

Consultation

The Gardeners

Great North Ron

Being Sylvia Plath

Lovely Poem, with a Sting

Darts Wag

You Don’t Look Like a Runner

Casual

Brain Scan

Fe Fi Fo Fum

Connected

The Opposite of a Ghost

Stop

Playground

Runners Block

One in a Million

Run

How to do Fartlek Training

Metamorphic

Darkroom

How Relationships Grow

Muscles

Bed

Christmas Presence

Joint

Only Connect

Our Ends in the North

On the first day the world ended,

I said, ‘Least said soonest mended.

‘Sometimes these things are sent to try us.’

Though in this case, they were sent to fry us.

But in the North we don’t like to make a fuss us,

though sometimes, I admit, we make a bit of a fuss

about how we don’t make a fuss.

In fact that ‘No Fuss Festival’

with the new play by Alan Bennett

‘Not Fussed’

and the 38 act opera ‘Unfussy’

starring Lesley ‘I Never Make A Fuss Me’ Garrett

might, upon reflection

have constituted making a fuss.

But just because it’s Doomsday, there’s no need to make

a big song and dance about it.

On the second day I was on the bus

when there was a bang and all the lights went out –

and there was a chorus,

of ‘Call this an Apocalypse? I felt nowt’.

and ‘Grimsby hasn’t looked