New nonsense poem

The Fatal Funeral of Uncle Ray

Here is my latest nonsense poem, The Fatal Funeral of Uncle Ray, which I hope you enjoy. I had the following lines going round and round in my head insisting on being written:

'Many folk perished, so it's said, the day
of the fatal funeral of Uncle Ray.'

I finished it (if a poem can ever be finished) last week and recorded it on Sunday, which was one of the RSPB birdwatch days. The birds seemed to know this and were out in force, singing merrily and loudly all the time. They weren't even distracted when we gave up and fed them, in the hope they would stuff their beaks and shut up. At the time of recording the noise from birds and cars didn't seem too bad but, on playback, they came over very loud. The robin was especially magnificent (I'd heard it practicing the previous week when it had been singing very quietly but it chose to really go for it as soon as we started recording). Luckily on the final recording, (the 7th - it was far too cold to do any more withouth bits dropping off) the birds weren't so close to the microphone and only one car passed. I think this final recording is ok but I can see why professionals use directional mics.

The poem had its first outing at Writers in the Brewery on Thursday 26 Jan 2012, when I also used my kindle for the first time, having just loaded The Fatal Funeral of Uncle Ray onto it. I must remember to choose a larger font next time since reading from it at home is far easier than reading with slightly odd lighting.

The same night at the Brewery, as well as some other readings of poetry and prose there was some excellent music from Keith Thompson, sometimes with Nick John (of Lyadrive) on vocals.

Let me know what you think.