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Dad Gods’ offer poetry and free toasted sammies
August 31, 2023 @ 7:00 pm – 10:30 pm
A homely trinity of Hawke’s Bay poets are offering free toasted sandwiches at their August 31 gig at Napier’s Paisley Stage.
Billed as Father, Son and Cheese on Toast, the fast-paced night starts with live music before ‘Dad Gods’ Ricky Day, Jeremy Roberts and Neill Gordon take to the stage.
“You’ll laugh your shorts off but you’ll also weep – not only at the tragedy of our urban lives but at your own world rendered like a mutton carcass into a poetic dog roll,” says Neill.
“Come for the toasted sammies, stay for the love, the joy and the soulful howls we will offer to the audience and the super blue moon happening that night.”
The gig precedes Father’s Day on Sunday September 3 and the poets will each incorporate a nod to the glories of procreation and its aftermath in their readings.
Guitarist Laughton Maitai will open the evening with a stripped-back set of tunes from 7pm. Ricky, Jeremy and Neill will do a 10-minute set each, take a short break and then return with more visionary verse in the second half. The show will wrap up about 9pm. Tickets are $5 on the door at the Paisley Stage, at 17 Carlyle Street, Napier.
Ricky Day writes poems that start small, get big, and end up small again. A regular at the Common Poets’ Society in Hastings, he has performed at the Fringe in the ‘Stings Festival, and for the Hawke’s Bay Readers and Writers’ Trust Progression of Poets.
Jeremy Roberts is a mainstay of poetry in Hawke’s Bay. He MC’s at Napier Live Poets, interviews poets on Radio Hawke’s Bay, and is poetry editor for the VINES journal. His work has been published widely – including NZ Listener, Landfall, Takahē, JAAM, Poetry NZ, and Phantom Billstickers. Jeremy has performed and recorded poems with musicians in Aotearoa, Austin, Saigon, and Jakarta. His first poetry collection was ‘Idiot Dawn’ (poems 1981-87). ‘Cards on the Table’ was published in 2015 and ‘The Dark Cracks of Kemang: The Bajaj Boys In Indonesia’ was published in 2022, by IP Australia. He was awarded the Earl of Seacliff poetry prize in 2019.
Volunteer event organiser Neill Gordon gained the nicest sort of notoriety recently for arranging for the entire Napier Hastings shoreline to be set on fire to celebrate Matariki on July 15. In between setting things ablaze he, like Ricky and Jeremy, writes poetry ranging from the domestic to the sublime.
Neill won the adult section of the 2022 Wardini Books Poetry Competition for his reflection on raising children entitled Wondering why the sun rises.
Tickets $5 on the door
