(I Married A) Monster From Outer Space

(I Married a) Monster From Outer Space is a poem/song by performance poet John Cooper Clarke, from his debut album; Où est la maison de fromage, which was released in 1978! I am not a big watcher/listener of poetry, but I have found this one, very inspiring.

I sort of discovered it entirely by accident. Back in 1998, in the lead up to the release of the 1998 Godzilla film, BBC Two had a special night of programming about it, which my Mam recorded for me. Most of it was recorded, but not all of it. About two whole decades later, I went looking for clips from the show, and found one featuring links between shows, featuring the host Bill Bailey. I watched through it, and smack bang right at the end (28:24), was a performance of this poem, read out live by John Cooper Clarke.

I had heard of John Cooper Clarke by this point, but didn’t really understand who he was, or why he kept appearing on several panel TV shows I watched. I first saw him on an episode of Have I Got News For You, and then of course, repeated appearances on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. I even saw a poster advertising his show, at a venue (I think it was the Connaught Theatre) in Worthing.

Over the years since I discovered it, I have listened to the Monster Night version of (I Married A) Monster from Outer Space, and I have enjoyed it. In all honesty, it was the first, (and up til only recently), and the only one of his poems I actually liked. But over the last six months, I have listened to it more and more, as it has been very inspiring, and motivational.

In July I had a rather botched visit to the barbers/hairdressers; and was rather annoyed by the whole experience. The following day, I re-listened to (I Married A) Monster from Outer Space, and it made me want to write out a poem about the experience. It was a brief labour of love, but the poem I wrote out, I really liked. It was the verse structure that was the most inspiring. Instead of doing something very free verse, I worked hard at rhyming words with other words, and it became a really fun poem to read, show, and read out loud to my friends.

In the months that have passed, I have written many more poems, with a simillar verse structure, and have used (I Married A) Monster from Outer Space as the driving force behind each one, whenever I felt the urge to write another. I have even felt confident enough to send in some pieces to competitions, and am even considering getting another book of work together. In the meantime, I have though found another poem by John Cooper Clarke that I like…this one: