Mark Mace Smith

Biography

The Ultimate Slam Poet 2011. BBC North/MediaCityUK Poet in Residence. Glastonbury Festival Poetry Slam winner 2008 (RU 2009). BBC Slam finalist. Socio-political, abstract expressionist, THUD DUB Poetry for performance, page, pub, club, commission, university, school, YIP, PRU, prison, YOT, college, cathedral... Poetry for weddings, births & deaths and everything else in between.

Samples

JIMMY - aka Where's My Adult? Jimmy didn't know what he was doing. It was only himself that he was fooling. At seventeen he said goodbye to schooling to lay a stake in the estate that he was ruling. But Jimmy didn't know that he was laughed at by the youths that hung around beneath the big flats. Who'd smoke a little weed but wouldn't do crack and would glory over the blagging of a four pack. No, Jimmy didn't know that he would die young. Not shot down in the street by a hired gun. He's no gangster, just a prankster who misses his mum. Who got caught up taking smack and then selling some. And Jimmy didn't know he was addicted. He thought smack would set him free but he's restricted. A skinny, sickly, scroat - for sure - afflicted by the angel of death - suicide predicted. Jimmy didn't know when to stop. Always clucking for a hit when he got up. Today he tried to rob some money from a shop. He got took down by security then locked up. Jimmy didn't know his mind weren’t well. He was bouncing off the walls inside his cell. To the devil his soul he'd gladly sell to break him out of this unforgiving living hell. Jimmy didn't know he'd lost is mind when his mum appeared to him with eyes so kind. Saying "James, leave this sinful life behind It's not escape but true love that you must find." Jimmy didn't know that he'd gone mad when he saw an hallucination of his dad. Saying "son, I’m so ashamed, you make me sad Just end this all now, be a good lad." Jimmy didn't know this wasn't real. Not as real as the emotions he could feel. Guilt, loss and self-pity made him reel and fall sobbing to his knees as he squealed. Jimmy didn't know that he had died or if he'd really meant to commit suicide. The leather belt had not slipped once it was tied and the noose would not come loose though Jimmy tried. No, Jimmy didn't know what he was doing. It was only himself that he was fooling. at seventeen he said goodbye to living to lay in a grave, near the estate... ...where no one missed him. Poor Jim.

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