The Verb

Bringing you the best in Australian spoken word poetry . A special edition of Adverb, recorded at the Riverside Theatres in Parramatta the creative edgy hub of West Sydney. Featuring the founder of the exciting Bankstown series of poetry slams Sara Mansour along with many of the poets who have performed there in slams that attract huge audiences to poetry . The Dharug people are the traditional custodians of the land upon which this performance was recorded in front of an audience. Here 7 of the best perform their work.Presented by Ian McMillan with L-Fresh the Lion Yleia Mariano Sara Mansour Adrian Mouhajer Hani Abdile Mohammed Awad and Dobby

Inspiring words that connect us in difficult times; three outstanding poets take to the stage at Outspoken, one of the most exciting and innovative poetry nights in the world.Imtiaz Dharker, poet, film-maker and national treasure is on first. She is a recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal and reads new poems from her collection 'Shadow Reader' - some of which explore the uncanny experience of having her 'shadow' read in order to predict her life-span.Rachael Allen is a legendary poetry editor as well as a poet; she shares poems of scrupulous attention to a relationship breaking down. Her readings come from the narrative poem in her new book 'God Complex'.Salena Godden's new book 'With Love Grief and Fury' is full of love poems for people and for the planet. She is a poet, memoirist and fiction writer. Her debut novel 'Mrs Death Misses Death' won the Indie Book Award for Fiction and the People’s Book Prize.We have selected poetry highlights - but Outspoken is also a music night, and was recorded at Southbank in London.Thanks to the Outspoken team for welcoming Radio 4:Joelle Taylor Anthony Anaxagorou Tom MacAndrew Karim Kamar Sam Junior Bromfield

Ian McMillan presents poets in performance from the Hay Festival for The Verb's performance wing - The Adverb. This week's guests include the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, the National Poet of Wales Hanan Issa, former Children’s Poet Laureate Joseph Coelho, Professor of Creativity Owen Sheers - and Jazz Money, an Australian poet of Wiradjuri heritage. They share poetry of nail varnish, snow, rivers, labyrinths and the heart.

Recorded live at the sunny Latitude Festival Ian McMillan has gathered three top poets for The Adverb - The Verb's showcase of the best live poetry and readings. Dr John Cooper Clarke is a legend of the punk poetry scene and gets us into gear with a poem about the thrilling allure of the hire car. The best art can come out of limitations and Luke Wright shows his amazing lyrical dexterity with a poem entirely based on the assonance of the letter A.And TS Eliot prize winner Joelle Taylor spellbinds the crowd with an autobiographical poem about growing up as a butch lesbian, touching on her early life in Accrington.Along the way, the Barnsley Bard Ian McMillan offers us some of his own work, including a no-holds-barred anaylysis of the perils of drinks machines. Presented by Ian McMillan Produced by Kevin Core

Why does 'mean' have so many meanings? Why do poets take metaphor so seriously? Why do objects like pink ghetto blasters make poems live? And why are the filaments of our eyes in the edges of the snow? To answer these surreal, and not so surreal questions - Ian McMillan is joined by Alistair McGowan, Caroline Bird, and Toria Garbutt, and presents an 'eartoon' - a cartoon for the ear, from Richard Poynton (otherwise known as Stagedoor Johnny).Alistair McGowan is an impressionist, actor, writer, pianist, and now - poet. He joins Ian McMillan in a pun-off - the first time such an event has ever been staged on national radio (probably). Alistair's collection of poems is called 'Not what we were expecting' (Flapjack Press).Toria Garbutt is a spoken word artist, poet and educator from Knottingley. She shares tender, funny poems from 'The Universe and Me' (Wrecking Ball Press) many of which take us into her relationship with her sister when they were young, and reveal how much poetry there is in the objects of childhood. Caroline Bird's new poetry collection is called 'Ambush at Still Lake' (Carcanet). She reads poems of motherhood which are like 'upside down jokes' and take 'toddler logic' (like the idea that imaginary carrots have completely run out) to surreal and sinister conclusions. Caroline also presents us with our neon line, a stand-out line from a classic poem, and explores why it works so well. It's this mystery poem which proposes that there are 'filaments of our eyes' in the 'edges of the snow'.Richard Poynton is a writer and performer (also known as Stagedoor Johnny). He stars in his own invention, a backstory for the origin of the English language, which explains why it has so many words with multiple meanings. In this week's Eartoon Richard introduces us to a 'mean' lasagne. (you won't want to meet it down a dark alley).

Crocodile-like men, fireflies, a soul hitching a ride on a bee, the coolness of Switzerland, anagrams, and a mysterious rhyming poem - all this and more from Ian McMillan's guests this week - as they explore the way a poetic image can change the way we see things,Arji Manuelpillai is a poet and creative facilitator. His poetry collection 'Improvised Explosive Device' (Penned in the Margins) emerged through research and interviews with academics, sociologists, and former members of extremist groups and their families. He also presents a poetry podcast: 'Arji's Pickle Jar'.Mona Arshi is a poet, and was a human rights lawyer. Her poetry collections are 'Small Hands' and 'Dear Big Gods' (Pavilion), and she recently published her first novel 'Somebody Loves You'. Mona's third poetry collection will be published next year. John McAuliffe is a poet, and a director of the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester. He has published six poetry collections - and his latest - 'National Theatre' (Gallery) will be out shortly. John unravels our 'neon' line this week ( a stand-out line in a classic poem) and explains why it works so well.Tom Chatfield is a novelist, writer and tech philosopher - and now author of 'Wise Animals: How technology has made us what we are' (Picador). He helps us pit human poets against AI or more precisely - against Large Language Models - to see what human poets can still do best.

Frogs who love rain, the poem that came from a magpie, the poetry of the peleton, and the everyday language of dating apps. Ian McMillan's guests this week (Hollie McNish, Testament, Ira Lightman and Liz Berry) bring all of this to the studio table and much, much more.Hollie McNish's latest book is 'Lobster and other things I'm learning to love' - she shares a pluviophile poem that shows how much joy there can be in realistic love.Ira Lightman is an innovative poet and artist and this week, especially for The Verb, he turns the Salford studio into a poetry version of the Tour de France - including a hot potato.Liz Berry's latest book is 'The Home Child' - she celebrates the poetry of Charlotte Mew, and reads a brand new poem inspired by a frightening but enchanting encounter with a magpie.Testament is a rapper, beatboxer, poet and playwright. His careful attention to the everyday language of people from different political positions, and to the language of dating apps informed his play 'Love in Gravitational Waves' - he shares some of the poetry that its characters write.

Ian McMillan is joined by poets and poetry lovers for this celebration of language recorded at this year's Hay Festival. The actor, Harry Potter star, Dickens virtuoso and national treasure Miriam Margolyes shares one of her favourite poems, the 19th century poet Robert Browning's 'My Last Duchess'. Miriam invites listeners to imagine the Duke, who is the speaker in the poem, as being like 'Hannibal Lecter' from 'The Silence of the Lambs' - a good planner, who has killed his wife.Irish novelist Kevin Barry has written three novels and four collections of short stories - a master of dialogue, and a beloved voice in the New Yorker magazine. He explores the poetry of the language in his most recent novel 'A Heart in Winter'.Gwenno has won awards and acclaim for her haunting and groundbreaking song-writing and performances. Gwenno's albums Le Kov and Tresor are in Cornish (she has a Welsh mother and a Cornish father). She joins Ian to share her love of the Welsh artist and poet Edrica Huws, who achieved fame late in life as a visual artist. Her poem 'Vingt-et-un' has stayed with Gwenno, and she explains why Edrica is a creative inspiration.The poet Owen Sheers explores a poem with a stand-out line (what we call on The Verb the 'Neon Line'). This week the poem explored is 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' by the Irish poet W.B. Yeats. Is it the 'bee-loud glade' that has caught Owen's attention, or something else? Ian finds out. Owen has an acute ear for language, with writing often inspired by his interviews with real people, for books like 'The Green Hollow'.

The appeal of 'the road less travelled by', Emily Brontë as self-help guru, a new way to look at Little Red Riding Hood and the 'little miracles' we might notice when we care for the elderly; Ian McMillan celebrates poems that explore all of these ideas with his guests, the poets Len Pennie, Malika Booker, Kate Fox, and Michael Symmons Roberts.Michael Symmons Roberts' poetry collections include 'Drysalter', 'Mancunia' and 'Ransom'. This week Michael explores Robert Frost's poem 'The Road not Taken' and sheds light on the strange power of the 'neon' line in the poem (a memorable line that takes the poem to another level) 'I took the road less travelled by'.Kate Fox is a stand up poet, spoken word artist and broadcaster, her latest poetry collection is 'Bigger on the Inside'. Kate has written a new poem for The Verb in which Emily Brontë advises us that most of our thoughts 'are nowt but hill fog' and that problems can be solved by 'a walk or a big dog', or 'a walk with a big dog'.Malika Booker is the only poet to have won The Forward Prize for best single poem twice - she reads one of those winning poems, 'The Little Miracles' for The Verb. Malika founded the groundbreaking poetry workshop 'Malika's Kitchen' with Roger Robinson. Her books include 'Pepper Seed' and her poetry can be found in the 'Penguin Modern Poets' series.Len Pennie's collection 'Poyums' is a best-seller, and explores domestic violence and misogyny with energy, wit and inventive rhyme, It's written in a mixture of Scots and English. Len has a huge following on social media, partly down to her celebration of a 'Scots word of the Day'. For The Verb, she reads a poem about telling the story of a relationship in your own words, and considers the influence of Robert Burns.

What's it like being awake at 4am? How do we feel about toads? Where does the word chortle come from, and when is an anthem truly personal?Ian McMillan gets to the heart of these questions through brand new poetry commissions, exploring the poems and poets we love, and through celebrating language's delights and quirks - all in the company of his guests: the poets Jackie Kay and Helen Mort, the actor Paterson Joseph, and the singer, songwriter and song 'treasurer' Sam Lee.Guests: Helen Mort's latest books are 'The Illustrated Woman' and 'A Line Above the Sky'. She shares a new commission called 'Corners' about the experience of being awake at 4am. Sam Lee joins her for the performance.Jackie Kay is the former Scottish Makar - her new poetry collection is May Day. Jackie discusses a poem by the Scottish poet Norman MacCaig called 'Toad', and reads her own poem 'Cairn'.Sam Lee's new album is Songdreaming. Sam is an arranger, folksong interpreter, passionate conservationist, song collector and creator of live events. He performs 'Banna's Lonely Shore', a song that he heard the Irish Traveller Nan Connors perform, and which he has never heard anywhere else.Paterson Joseph is an award-winning writer and actor, known for his powerful Shakespearian performances as well as his comic roles in television series like 'Green Wing' and 'Peep Show'. Paterson performs Lewis Carroll's 'Jabberwocky'. His novel is called 'The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho'.