‘Protean’ by Kerry Priest
The poem sets up a pattern of metre, rhyme and repetition in the first stanza which the following verses deliberately disrupt. As I eat the protein soup, I decide for myself how masculine I want to become, how much of the propaganda and structure to swallow.
The voice of the protein bro circles around me, and sometimes speaks from inside of me, as I consume the protein. My identity shifts as I sense myself in the other and the other in myself. We sense the inevitability of the descent of the protein into my stomach, where it will be denatured and reconstructed, ideally on my own terms.
The masculine performativity around protein and carnivorous diets is hilarious, and the language of beef and meat is delectable, so this poem wrote itself in many ways. I was inspired by the poetics of the grotesque, as well as body horror.
Previously, I was more interested in sound in space – acousmatics, polyphony, broadcast, landscapes, etc. I now feel the need to explore the body as a physical and theatrical presence. I am returning to the human and the political at this time.
Recording the sounds of the body is central to this process, and the difficulty in doing so is part of the intention which is to open space for a mulling over of what we are, and whether we can know ourselves.
A plain text transcript of ‘Protean’ can be downloaded as a Word.doc or a PDF
About the artist
Kerry Priest works with sound and poetry in performance and installation. Her sound poems have been presented internationally at Niterói Contemporary Art Museum, Rio de Janeiro (2024), Fiesta Del Libro y La Cultura, Medellin (2021) and the University of Alberta (2024), broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and released on the Bristol Beacon imprint by NMC Recordings.
Her writing credits include the libretti for two short operas for Royal Opera House. Kerry was an emerging playwright at the Minack, for whom she wrote the play Forces (Minack 2022). Her poetry is published widely and her pamphlet, The Bone Staircase, is with Live Canon. She has been nominated for the Forward Prize and was one of Eyewear’s Best British and Irish Poets 2018.