Darragh Fleming

probably like 99% accurate now which is great but it is a case of like there's this side of me that's like really introspective likes to go into the deep subjects and write about it but then there's a side of me that's like I just like having fun and going for a pint and you know whatever yeah stuff like that so I'm not like the brooding poet at home I'm just like yeah we you know we take in your chin yeah yeah yeah like I need to reflect on what you've just told me I'm like yeah that's that's crazy what are you talking about like yeah okay

So, Dara, you've kind of blown up in the last number of months.

I came across you with your poem, If I Had Boys.

And then I saw you on Miriam O'Callaghan and I thought I need to get him on the podcast.

So how has this all come about?

There's part of me that doesn't know, and then there's a part of me that thinks it's probably better that I don't know.

Like, don't open the black box.

But I've been writing formally and trying to get published and being published for the last...

10 years and I've had a lot of workplace in different literary magazines and some books and stuff and then kind of got introduced to spoken word and performing maybe like three or four years ago and I really enjoyed it and it was like a different version of poetry and it felt really like accessible and open and conversational and like my prose has always been quite conversational and that like

it's not trying to be too intellectual or like over complicated it's just like these are the thoughts I'm thinking so that's how they're going to read it

And what is spoken word?

Just explain.

Spoken word is spoken word poetry.

It's basically, you kind of have two strains of poetry where it's traditional literary page poetry.

So like think of like Yeats, Sylvia Plath, like all on the page.

And then spoken word is written poetry that's intended to be performed or said out loud because not all poems are intended to be said out loud.

Literary poetry is very much like to either be read off the page or just read to yourself.

So it's just more performative kind of poetry.

It has roots in like working class communities, which immediately brings this kind of sense of like inclusivity and accessibility because it's the barrier to entrance.

There's not really any gatekeepers.