about / poems / other work / contact / shop
> Introduction
> Poems about Exeter
> Zines to download & print
> Casey Garfield's Bardic Manifesto
Hi! My name is Casey Garfield, I'm an Exeter poet, and I'd really like to be the Bard of Exeter.
Exeter is one of the only cities with the ancient right to appoint a Bard to represent the land and its people, with each bard holding the title for a year and a day. Who holds the title is decided by public vote at the Bardic Contest, and in 2026, that's taking place on Friday 29th May, 7pm at Exeter Library - tickets are available for free here
I love Exeter and I'm so grateful to have been welcomed so warmly into the local scene over the last few years, from representing Exeter in the international spoken word contest Slamovision as the winner of City Slam 2026, hosting free writing workshops at Exeter Library, headlining local events at the Phoenix and Chococo, or just taking part in our incredible community as an open mic-er and audience member.
I've written a lot of poems inspired by this wonderful city, and to get the word out that Casey Garfield would like to be the Bard of Exeter one day please, I've spent the last year collecting some of my Exeter poems into mini zines that I give away for free at local poetry events and at Bookbag, Exeter's indie bookshop.
I've handed out over 150 zines already, but I want them to be as accessible as possible, so I'm publishing a bunch of my Exeter poems here on the website, hosting the files for you to print your own copies of the zine if you'd like, and sharing my bardic manifesto for anyone who's interested in what I'd intend to do during my time as bard, should the people of Exeter want me in the role!
If you like my poems and would like to see me be the Bard of Exeter for the next year, I hope you might consider attending on the 29th and voting for me! And of course, if you don't like me or my poems, please do attend anyway and vote for the person you think would make a better bard!
Everything's on this one page, so feel free to scroll down and start reading! But if you'd like to jump to a particular poem, use the contents bar below to be taken straight to the poem of your choice:
> I Wanna Be Your Bard (after John Cooper Clarke)
> Falling in love at St Nicholas Priory
> Open Easter Sunday (a Taco Bell sonnet)
> Half-hearted Sonnet
> I summoned the ghost of Shakespeare...
> incredible
> Improvisations on a sentence by Mitch Hedberg
> Solstice on Exmoor Taught Me
> a story about the band we'll start so we can play The Cavern one day
> a poem borrowing lines from items sold in Helen of Troy
> Poem after the moment...
More poems being uploaded soon!
I Wanna Be Your Bard
After John Cooper Clarke's 'I Wanna Be Yours'
My postie is a poet
teaching me your history,
helped me see riddles reflected
in a high street Christmas tree.
Where else could you get that?
Send your answers on a card.
You made me love you Exeter,
now I wanna be your bard.
I’m warmed in your old firehouse,
unshackled by your quay.
Nowhere else has ever managed
to make me care about rugby.
But everything is different here
in my five starred yard,
you made me love you Exeter.
I wanna be your bard.
When buses dropped off bullies
from afar to march about,
and spit cruel little threats
about the people they want out,
you outnumbered them ten to one
to say Exeter’s for everyone.
We shout loud, we care hard,
oh Exeter, I wanna be your bard.
I don’t know if I’m smart enough
and I’ve got no fashion sense,
but you’ve always been so kind to me,
you deserve recompense.
I may not know if there’s a difference
between an avenue and boulevard
but I know where I stand on your fine streets
and I wanna be your bard.
Take me to your Christmas market,
I will fill your stocking up,
your cathedral coffee cart it
fills my heart and coffee cup.
This love won’t need a rain check, don’t fear,
you even make the weather here!
The met office lives on Fitzroy Road,
I’ll walk you there from my abode,
you’ll need their satellites just to regard
how massively I wanna be your bard.
I may not have always been here,
but just like the house that moved,
I’ve been relocated and repaired
and my life has so improved.
I thought being from Norfolk
I just wasn’t used to hills,
but it’s you that took my breath away,
your people give me chills.
I hope it’s clear I mean the good way!
You fill me with such glee,
and as my way of saying thank you,
you know what I wanna be?
Your neighbour. Plain and simple.
I don’t need more to be true.
But if you want me as your bard,
I’ll write you loads more poems too.
Falling in love at St Nicholas Priory, est. 1087
Walk softly.
Plenty is broken
and plenty more will follow.
Still though,
what good is a museum
with nothing alive inside
to hear the birdsong
in the medicine gardens
Open Easter Sunday
A sonnet for the St. Sidwell Street Taco Bell
I catch myself smiling, with chin in palm,
cocked head & tender eyes all full of him -
watching the campest cashier in Devon
subtly weaving voguing into his work.
He orchestrates four to-go bags with waves
and taps, a popped hip. It's not even noon.
When he tells me "enjoy your day, lovely"
I carry it with me as a blessing.
Outside, a hangover all draped in denim
licks wild sauce from their thumb in laboured moves.
Nodding with satisfaction, nearby punks
are tearing a soft shell like Eucharist.
I could fall in love with anyone,
If I let myself. Often I let myself.
Half-Hearted Sonnet
for the South West Shakespeare Festival edition of Campfire Literary Salon, after Kim Addonizio
I'm tapping out syllables on your thigh,
losing count. Trying to keep track of the rhyme
while distracted. The meter's off. I sigh.
I could immortalise us. There's no time.
To write about this moment, I'd leave it.
I'll leave it.
Woah! I summoned the ghost of Shakespeare to guide my hands when they wouldn't write by themselves, and you wont believe what happened next!
A different approach to a poem for Campfire Salon at the South West Shakespeare Festival
I thought poetry would be easy,
you just talk and sometimes rhyme.
But it's hard to make words come together
and it takes far too much time.
So left with writers block again
I resort to devilish plans -
I held myself a seance
& asked Shakespeare's ghost to guide my hands.
Now the ghost of Shakespeare guides my hands!
But he doesn't want to write.
He had his fill of that in life,
it kept him up at night
and when there's no one to possess
he'll toss sonnets round his head,
so when the ghost of Shakespeare guides my hands
he has other plans instead.
He messes up the produce stands
by squeezing all the grapes,
and I can't go near the bakery
or he gets wrist deep in cakes.
He's ruining all my clothes
by picking at the threads,
he's been left with all this energy
and you can't fidget when you're dead.
At first it was frustrating,
he didn't act like Shakespeare should,
but after a while with the bard
I'll admit - it feels good.
The way he picks the ground at picnics
gifts the smell of fresh cut grass
and I love the feeling of the leaves
when he brushes the bushes I pass.
Poems make you notice beauty, right?
He does that pretty well!
I'm in touch with all my senses now,
I'm glad i cast that spell.
I know it seems annoying
and like it might get in the way,
but since this is a game to William,
it counts as a Shakespeare play.
incredible
(after the Riddler In Residence - then Johnny Fluffypunk - and Beach Sloth)
Look at this poem.
unless, of course, you don't.
Unless you choose to remember it
on a quiet afternoon,
years from now, to prov
anything can be as immortal,
as meaningful, as we choose.
Improvisations on a sentence by Mitch Hedberg
for the Exeter Comedy Festival, after Jack Spicer
"I wanted to buy a candle holder, but the store didn't have one, so I bought a cake." I walked home with arms full of fire and sweetness. I want to have my cake and heat it too, which is completely achievable, which is great. Life gave me lemon drizzle, which is also great. I picked my birthday cake up from the store and it was like a smaller birthday party before my birthday party, except all the guests were strangers and they were getting presents for themselves and most of them didn't know it was a celebration. But it was.
Solstice on Exmoor Taught Me
I can go days without tasting, unless I make myself.
I’ll refuel in front of an obligation, lost in the wrong noises,
but it’s not eating. Not making a meal of it.
Then the sun finds me. Some stray shard of warmth
cuts through, invites me to befriend this body,
to see its needs as gifts and want to give them.
I start to seek silence and instead find birdsong, wind,
the distant sounds of engines and hoofbeats
from others pursuing their own comforts. I find reminders
this is a full world and I am part of it.
When I try to see less I notice each blade in the green,
stare at a blank sky and find where the shades change.
Whenever I am too caught in the clamour to remember
nature stills me. Cups my face, reminds me of my roots, says
“Look again. In the space between breaths is clear water.”
a story about the band we'll start so we can play The Cavern one day
we used to end our shows
by breaking our instruments
but that doesn't feel cool anymore
so now we end our shows
by making the audience watch
as we donate them to a charity shop
and when that stops being cool
we'll hold instrument repair workshops
for the bands still breaking theirs
and when we stop caring
about our audiences,
we'll finally hold each other
Poem borrowing lines from items sold in Helen of Troy
I’m not on a journey
I am living a good life
Next to the ceramic fortune cookies
stands a handwritten promise
“all happy fortunes”
I feel small sometimes too
It was thrilling
Everyone here kinder than they need to be
in a way that warms your heart
in a way you carry with you
It lasts forever and then it’s over How lucky are we
Your smile makes your neighbour smile
or vice versa - you can't tell who started it
but should it fade, you know how to bring it back
can’t wait to go to bed
yearning for Helen of Troy
a poem after the moment some nervous students see me seeming confident in the store and ask for my help picking a drink, or the moment I get to tell the person who complimented my shirt where to get it and that there’s a sale on right now, or the moment I don’t have change but do have a lunch I could share, or the moment I make small talk with an old lady and she starts telling me about her cancer in a way that seems to take us both by surprise but we end up planning what I’ll do with my hair in case she can’t do much with hers, or the moment I ask a guy if he minds if I sit on the other end of the bench he’s using and even though we sit in silence after that he still says goodbye when he leaves and thanks me for some reason and we wish each other a good day, or any number of small moments lately, and increasingly, every moment in my home
I think I stayed alive
just for this moment
If you haven't been able to pick up one of the zines for any reason but would like a physical copy, you can download the files below and print your own copies - or, feel free to message me, and I can arrange to get a copy I printed and folded over to you if that's easier!
> Volume 1
> Volume 2
> Exeter Pride special edition
If you're new to the world of mini zines, welcome! I hope you like them, I hope you make your own! Please check out these tutorials on how to fold your mini zine to make an 8 page book out of one sheet of A4.
> text tutorial (with pictures) on how to fold a mini zine, by Fiona Barnacle
> video tutorial on how to fold a mini zine, by brattyxbre
I want to approach being the Bard of Exeter as a poet, and I want to make being a poet stand for something. Specifically, I want POET to stand for:
P - Publishing
O - Outreach
E - Expanding
T - Taking part
If you want my aims in a nutshell, click here to get a bulletpoint list of them in brief, or I'll go into full detail below!
Taking part is nice and easy - we have an incredible creative scene in Exeter (and Devon more broadly too) and I've been so grateful to be part of it.
Whether that's representing Exeter at the worldwide poetry competition Slamovision this year as your winner of City Slam 2026, opening the day for The Book Market at the Quay, or just being a face in the crowd at open mics, I love our scene and want to keep supporting what's already thriving in any and all ways the Bardic Chair can.
Lots of people have no idea how great our literary scene is though - loads of people I talk to in the wider world had a bad time in English classes then left school thinking literature and poetry and all sorts of bardic joys weren’t for them.
Most of the time they love individual poems and books, but feel something like a poetry night is for an in-group that they’re on the outside of, so they wouldn’t ever seek it out. I think they’d get a lot out of being involved in the literary scene, and I think we’re missing out by not having them be part of it, but if people don’t feel invited in, that wont change passively - it’s our job to actively invite them.
One way I want to do that is by expanding what a literary event looks like. I think there are people who wouldn’t go to an open mic that might go to a literary slumber party (an event where pyjamas are encouraged, you bring a pillow and in addition to party games, watching a movie and doing our nails, there’s a circle of people sharing their favourite stories, including stuff they’ve written if they’d like) or to a poetry game show (part poetry slam, where audience members are brought in as judges to decide which poet will be the winner, and part game show, and between rounds the poets and audience members alike take part in game show challenges, both parties competing for prizes and bragging rights).
The exact ‘not like other literary events literary event’ will be finalised after community consultation (if I’m doing this as the bard of Exeter, I want to be sure it’s for Exeter and what you want!) but these are my favourite ideas so far, and I’ll hold at least one as your bard. I’ve had some local venues confirm they’d be interested in hosting, and I’m talking with some local events organisers to see if this would be bigger and better as a collaboration.
Beyond just offering something different though, I want to also bring poetry to people where they are, rather than expecting they’ll come to us.
I’ve got a history of bringing poetry to non-poetry audiences, whether that’s being the only poet on bills full of musicians or drag artists, stocking poems at art fairs and bar vending machines in the form of stickers and posters and badges as well as books, or giving out 50 mini poetry collections at Exeter Pride this year. Sometimes it isn't explicitly poetry work either, but creating chances to connect, like hosting free public events called ‘uneventful events’ based around things like inviting people to blow bubbles with strangers or take a moment to lay in the grass and say what they think clouds look like.
Teaching poetry to high school groups who desperately didn’t want there at first gave me experience in not only helping poetry connect with people who weren’t already ‘poetry people’, but also figuring out with them where the poetry was in things they already loved, and running Writing For Wellbeing workshops with the NHS Wellbeing Service helped me focus on what poetry was offering people and what they could take away from engaging with it.
I have a three part plan to reach the three levels of people who aren't engaging in our existing literary scene:
The Exeter Book is the oldest book of English literature in the world, being one of only four surviving Old English poetry manuscripts, and the story of Penguin Books and the popularisation of the paperback starts at Exeter St David’s station. Exeter’s publishing history is monumental, but at the moment, there isn’t a massive amount of contemporary publishing going on around the Exe.
I’ve made zines (scrappy DIY magazines) a big part of my campaign, giving out over 150 mini-zines full of Exeter inspired poems out for free, in no small part because I love them. It's a really quick, affordable and accessible way to make, share and collect writing and art into something tangible when it would otherwise end up staying digital forever or needing big, costly, more complicated printing into ‘proper books’.
I plan to spend my remaining library use given to the Bard to hold free zine making workshops - again, open to everyone, at any level of experience - to support Exonians in creating and self-publishing their own zines.
Then, for anyone who would be happy to let me photocopy their zines at the end of the workshop, or anyone who would like to work on their zines at home and send me a copy at any point during my tenure as bard, I would collect our locally made zines into Exeter’s first Zine Library, which I would be thrilled to pass into the hands of Exeter Library, the City of Literature team, or the next Bard of Exeter at the end of my year and a day in the role.
As much as I love zines and think sometimes their punk and imperfect nature can be the perfect thing for a publication, some things are made to be glossy and perfect! As editor in chief of the independent publisher Placeholder Press, I've also published polished, perfect-bound paperbacks - we released multiple copies of literary magazines and journals (some including full-colour art and illustrations, one with fold-out elements), a blackout poetry collection, a memoir, and a series of online special journal issues.
In addition to supporting Exeter creatives in self-publishing zines, I want to publish an Exeter based writer through Placeholder Press, releasing their book as a proper paperback stocked in Bookbag.
An open call will be held for authors of any form and genre, which will be promoted online and at local events for at least three months so there’s plenty of time for the word to get around and for people to prepare something. I’ll handle all of the formatting and offer any editing required, so all the writers have to worry about is writing.
From the submitted work, at least one writer will be offered publication through Placeholder Press, with the author keeping all rights to their work, us doing and paying for all the fiddly bits around of publishing, us having 100 copies of the book professionally printed, splitting the profits 50/50 (the industry average is authors getting 10%) and us re-investing our cut into future publications, so that both arms of my bardic mission to bring more publishing to Exeter can continue beyond my time as the bard.
