I caught up recently with Dominic Berry during his ‘I Can Make You Fail Slightly Less’ tour.

Based in Manchester, he is an internationally award-winning performance poet and was the poet in residence during Glastonbury’s 2017 festival. As well as his adult work, he is known for his children’s poetry – performing as Dommy B, which you can also catch on tour this year in his ‘When Trolls Try To Eat Your Goldfish’ show.

What first got you into poetry?

‘I loved poetry at school, but all the poets we did were dead poets and I loved it. Most people said they hate it at school and it wasn’t until I was an adult that I discovered great poetry. I moved to Manchester cos I heard it was a city full of artists and gays, and I like artists and I like gays, and I saw Lemn Sissay in his early days, Gerry Potter and Rosie Lugosi. I was really inspired and thought, I want to give this a go and I so did.’

So apart from those people, what things most influence your poetry?

‘What you write about… you just write something you feel. You just write so much that nobody connects to, you just have an idea and think, hopefully this will be good and you read it at an open mic and no one likes it. You think this is one for the drawing board and then every now and again something clicks… I’ve got a really horrible poem called ‘Men locked behind toilet doors’ and it’s in my book [No Tigers] and it’s probably my poem that’s got the best reaction. It’s won me a few competitions, it’s been in a few books and I really thought it was a poem just for me. I was in a very angry mood, I wrote a very cross piece of writing and yeah that’s the bit that really resonated.

I don’t really know, you just try.’

Do you have a writing process?

‘I do write but not every day as I’m a performance poet. A lot of my days are on the road, so when I do write they’re like a stream of consciousness. You just get up and splurge all the nonsense out. I’m a big fan of Meter form, a lot of the stuff people find quite archaic, forms like Sonnets, Villanelles and Triolets. I think it’s good – the restriction gives me a sort of sense of placement, the blank page can be so daunting I like to have something to fit it. Sometimes I might abandon the original form, where the poems grown different from this original form, but it’s a starting place. Form is something I’m keen on, I’m really nerdy about rhythms and iambs, and I really enjoy that kind of detail.’

What’s your favourite poem that you’ve written yourself?

It changes all the time. I write a lot for children these days, I didn’t used to but I’ve a poem called “Dragon in my homework” and I love that poem of mine, and it’s my poem that’s got the most views on YouTube. I don’t have my own channel, other people have filmed me, it’s not my best performance cos it’s like when I’d just written it. I could re-film it, but I just want to lift all those views, so I just stick with the current video. For adults, maybe “Men locked behind toilet doors” maybe the iPod poem, or the He-Man poem I do in my current show.

What advice would you give to anyone writing or performing poetry?

‘Go to poetry events, read poetry, immerse yourself in other peoples work, no person is an island. Just experience as much as you can. It’s OK not to like something, just immerse and be part of the scene and learn from doing. Listen and write.’

What are you ambitions for this year?

‘I just want to have a really busy October half term. This is usually a really good time for children’s poetry. I’m contacting a lot of theatres at the moment in the hope that they’ll book me for an… as yet unwritten new children’s poetry show. So if I finish this year looking back over at October thinking, that was a busy October, that will please me very, very much. I think the show will probably be titled “Dommy B’s Best Adventure ever.”’

What other spoken word acts would you recommend we keep an eye out for?

‘Vic Richards, I went to a poetry event in my home town of Manchester and he was performing some new work. I know he’s got a new book coming out, his new work is amazing, he did three new poems, so the new book will be absolutely wonderful. Tahira Rehman, is a poet from Leeds and Jackie Hagan, she’s always someone to look out for.

You can find out more on his website or by following Dominic on Twitter.

Both his adult and children’s books are available via Flapjack Press (Dominic Berry, and Dommy B), and some can always be found on Amazon.

See more of our coverage and interviews in our Art and Literature section, or find local and UK poetry, music and other live Events.