A Boro taxi driver who is a poet in his spare time? I like him already!

Duggy Verrill is fifty two years old and after trying out twenty nine different jobs (including being a toilet attendant and a court usher) he eventually became a taxi driver and has been for 17 years now. I was looking forward to having a read of his book because I'm used to reading poets like William Wordsworth and T.S Eliot and I gotta say...sometimes they can be right wafflers. Anyway...back to Duggy.  I've read the book in one sitting today and I was laughing out loud. I must  have looked a right pleb to passers-by sitting at the counter wearing my woolley hat and grinning away to myself. Ah well.

I don't think it would be the 'done thing' to quote Duggy's poetry word for word here, but I don't think he would mind if I copied a few verses - just to give you a glimpse of his work so that you can make your own mind up. If I'm honest, I don't feel that his website does his work justice as there is just one poem on it and you don't get a true feel about his voice as a poet, so when it came to reading his book I was surprised at how engaging it was, I couldn't put it down! He talks about real life, raw subjects such as death, love (inevitably going sour), ageing and what people really say when you try to strike up a conversation in a Middlesbrough park.

An extract from 'Albert Park':

I sat down on the first bench
A smart young lady was reading a book
I smiled, she gave me a nasty stare
She said 'piss off perve and sling yer hook'

[and...]

I strolled towards the fountain
Two Rotties were off the lead
After meeting Hitler's daughter
This is something I don't need

An extract from 'Bitter'  (which is all about love and how he is so proud
of the sexy lady on his arm...but then later...)

Hairs gone grey, wrinkly face
Figure only a dog would chase
Got the smell of stilton cheese
Plastic hip and wobbly knees

An extract from 'Suicide':

I put my head in the oven
I thought this can't be that hard
The gas stopped after a minute
There was nowt left on the card

Another one here is from his poem 'The Graveyard':

I started thinking of all my friends
Laying in their plots
And the money I'd have saved up on birthday cards
Adds up to quite a lot!

As well as being funny though, Duggy makes some really heartfelt points throughout the book, here is an extract from the poem 'Grace' which is about his friend who is in a wheelchair:

We bump into Joe he asks "is she alright?"
I say, "Ask her yourself Joe, she's really quite bright,
Just because she's sat in the chair
Doesn't mean she isn't all there"

There are so many more bits that I want to quote but I think I'll leave it there, otherwise I'll be practically typing the book out myself. Plus, just reading the extracts without knowing the context of the verse doesn't really do his work justice. I really enjoyed it though and I find his dark humour and dry wit appealing. Duggy Verrill is my kind of poet because he says what he feels, he isn't pretentious (or cheesy) and he mixes the dark and depressing stuff with humour and a good rhyme. I'm no literary critic by a long shot, but in my opinion this book is definitely worth buying. It is just £5.00 and for every book sold, £1 goes to the NSPCC! Good one that. Duggy has a website you can check out too, just click HERE. He will be publishing a new set of poems in the springtime.

Thanks for reading :)

Kerry x

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