A plea has been issued by friends of a poet in Oxford who died without any assets to help pay for his funeral. David MacArnold, better known in poetry circles as Davy Mac, died in hospital last month, aged 63, from prostate cancer. He had been due to compete in the Hammer and Tongue national slam final at the Albert Hall earlier this year but was too unwell to attend. His close friend, fellow poet Andie Berryman, said she and other friends were trying to raise funds to give him the send-off he deserved.

She said: “I met Davy at the Oxford branch of Hammer and Tongue’s slam night. I don't recall what got us talking. He did do a few shows with Dan Holloway, and admired Dan immensely. They had similar performance styles, but Davy's slam pieces were more earthed in social justice issues, especially around sexuality, homelessness and his life on the street.

“Davy was useless around technology. I think that's how I came to visit his flat, to sort out his PC/Phone/digital alarm clock and from there, when we weren't at the slams he would come out for a drink and we'd talk about politics and he would rant about 'the bastard' Tories. But he had time to listen to other people too and he enjoyed being around people who had something to say for themselves.

“As I got to know him, more came out about his past, especially when he started to share some of his poems with me. I found that we both grew up in the north-east in poverty, but he was actually born in Glasgow. He'd tell tales of realising his sexuality in army and the hypocrisy around relationships between the men and officers.

“Davy loved Joyce, jazz, surrealist art and watching new poets take to the stage. When he first got ill and didn't want to leave the house, we used Facebook chat to challenge each other to write poems based on musical prompts.”

Davy Mac had previously told the Oxford Mail he had followed his father’s footsteps and joined the army when he was 15, later serving in the Royal Corps of Signals in Germany, Ireland, England and the Falklands after the conflict, earning the rank of corporal. But he said he came out as gay and was forced to leave under a cloud.

Unemployed, he moved to Amsterdam, where he said he got into drink and drugs, ending up homeless and then getting into trouble and serving a jail term in Japan after being convicted of drug smuggling. He won a Prisoners Abroad creative writing competition, and when he was released and returned to London, teamed up with homelessness charity Crisis, which helped him find shelter and for which he ran creative writing workshops. He came to Oxford in 2011 to take a creative writing course at Ruskin, and started going to poetry slams.

Andie Berryman said Davy had married young, but had spoken little of his early life to friends in Oxford and was not in touch with his family. She added: “Unfortunately Davy died with no assets, so at this time I can't confirm a date for the funeral. But we do have a page which is fundraising towards the cost of one - http://donationsfordavymac.wordpress.com/.”

At Tuesday’s Hammer and Tongue, featuring US slam star Buddy Wakefield, Andie read out a poem of Davy’s. We reprint it below:

 

from ‘A Conversation with a Rock’

by Davy Mac

 

I am a rock. I am an Island.

Part of the heart of a star recycled,

a mountain ground down by time and tide

washed up on a desolate shore.

I’m the joke you always tell

when you introduce me as your pet.

‘This is Audrey, my pet rock.

Much less trouble than a cat or a dog

except every hundred years or so

when she comes into heat

and dribbles lava all over the floor.’

Yes, I’m a rock; an Island in a stream

of energy, part of the heart of a star, recycled

plasma, to magma, to molten lava.

A mountain ground down by time and tide

to an overgrown pebble, washed up

on an angry shore.

And the joke you always tell

when you introduce me as your pet?

Oh yes, I’m a joke alright,

but no one’s got it yet.