Gerry Potter

Photo of Gerry Potter

Gerry Potter is a poet, playwright, director, actor and the successful regeneration of gay scouse socialist transvestite icon Chloe Poems. His second collection of biographical poetry, Planet Middle Age, is published by Flapjack Press in 2010 and continues the journey started in Planet Young. His previous incarnation saw the release of Universal Rentboy [Bad Press, 2000], Adult Entertainment [Route, 2002] & Li’l Book O’Manchester [Mucusart, 2007] and he has the distinction of being in both the poetry and philosophy sections of Harvard University Library.

Planet Middle Age,
A show on Radio Old.
A repeat with a quizzical demographic
And I am and not quite tuned into
Its frequency.

- from Planet Middle Age 

Titles by Gerry Potter

Planet Young cover image

Planet Young

Welcome to Planet Young, the debut collection from the overwhelmingly engaging Gerry Potter - the poet formerly known as Chloe Poems.

Rich with spell-weaving imagery and rhapsodic concepts, biographical, confessional and gloriously poetic, this lyrical journey thrusts you ever forward on a magical history tour, brake-slamming and horn-pounding through the domestic and fantastic.

Published 29 June 2009. www.flapjackpress.co.uk

"I genuinely believe everything belongs to nobody. I’ve put these musings onto paper and, if you’re reading this, then I sincerely hope in some small way that what I’ve written becomes yours. It’s a world, things happen. This is how I’ve based my whole ethos. I’ve just started writing this and this has happened and I’m not going to change a word. Well, maybe a little.
So, read this book like you’re listening to me talking, I am a performance poet after all, or read it like it’s you talking to me. Dammit, read like you want, who am I to dictate? I do hope you find in it some of what I put there. I must have put it there for something."
Gerry Potter

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Planet Middle Age cover image

Planet Middle Age

Planet Middle Age,
A show on Radio Old.
A repeat with a quizzical demographic
And I am and not quite tuned into
Its frequency.
                                        - from Planet Middle Age

Picking up from where Planet Young leaves off, Gerry’s second instalment of autobiographical poetry intimately explores his own love, grief, friendships, family and journey into Planet Middle Age.

It’s a journey with jostling and lost tickets, the strength and vulnerability of first-hand secrets and seats warm from the strangers that sat there before, and the intensity and passion that takes us from one planet to another.

Published by Flapjack Press on 21st July 2010. 

In his last collection, Planet Young, Potter wrote about killing off his alter-ego Chloe Poems and discovering his Scouse voice. His true voice has never been more expressive than in this latest collection. Middle age has not dampened his talent. Here are poems that will amuse, move, inspire and provoke. Long may he continue.

- Paul Burston

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The Men Pomes cover image

The Men Pomes

Gerry's third collection of theatre-verse explores the intimate nature of men. Here is where dreams and reality are inescapable and inexhaustible. It's where humour liberates and empathy empowers, where dark Catholicism collides with secular provocation and men resonate with melancholy and passion. Here, lives are led.

Gerry's first two volumes of autobiographical poetry, Planet Young and Planet Middle Age, are also available from Flapjack Press.

A favourite son of both Manchester and his home town Liverpool, Gerry Potter is an award-winning poet, playwright, director, actor, workshop leader and the creator and destroyer of the infamous gingham diva Chloe Poems. His previous publications as Chloe included Universal Rentboy [Bad Press, 2000], Adult Entertainment [Route, 2002] and Li'l Book o' Manchester [Mucusart, 2007]. A former writer in residence at Manchester's Contact and Greenroom theatres, he has a reputation for putting his Scouse voice on the line, a soaring sing-song accent, and is strong on poetry and strong on the causes of poetry. The Men Pomes is his third collection of autobiographical, domestic-fantastic theatre-verse for Flapjack Press, and follows the successes of Planet Young and Planet Middle Age.
Facebook: Gerry Potter Poet Fan Page
YouTube: Gerry Potter Poet

Is there a time somewhere I don't know
Where The Man stood alone
Atop his ivory tower and declared to the world
That his voice
Would be the only voice obeyed?
In that same time-space I don't know,
Did all the other men agree?
- from 'Cake'

"Formerly a hero/ine of the poetry circuit as his alter ego Chloe Poems, Gerry now takes to the stage in his own right. This is poetry like nothing you've heard before - asking with a wry smile what it means to be male, Scouse, working class and gay. You don't have to be any of these to find The Men Pomes heartbreaking and heart-mending, with a roar of anger one minute and a roar of laughter the next: a statement of pride, joyfulness and scorn in the face of bigotry. Gerry Potter is a world-class performer at the height of his powers, delivering intelligent, humane and searching poetry that makes us all ask who we are and who we want to be" - Jo Bell, Director National Poetry Day

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