Watch: Poet puts ‘The AAAA in Caaaardiff’
Stephen Price
A Welsh poet has captured the attention of audiences across the world with a spoken poem that perfectly illustrates and explains the multicultural roots of the Cardiff accent.
Matt Nõmme is a performance poet from Cardiff who wrote his first poem in 2019.
While sat in A&E, he scribbled down a joke and over the next few hours turned it into a poem to pass the time, and he’s never looked back since.
Matt has been winning over crowds who say they “aren’t into poetry” by winding stories and punchy poems together to explore the ups and downs of everyday life.
“Loves it”
His ode to the Caaaardiff accent, however, has taken on a life of its own – with thousands of social media users not only hearing the unique accent for the first time, but also getting a little history lesson in the process.
As Matt Jones writes: “Loves it.”
The AAAA in Caaaardiff
The first AAAA was born just down the road
The Irish AAAA came after Britain starved their home
The Liverpudlian AAAA was an orphan from the war
The Valleys AAAA came after coal was no more
The Estonian AAAA who worked on the buses
The Somalian AAAA that got Butetown bustlin
The Hong Kong AAAA that plays daaaarts in the baaaar
The Pakistani AAAA who made Rumney their new staaaart
The Italian AAAA which brought ice cream with it
The Yemeni AAAA now finishes sentences with, innit
An AAAA shaped by those who call Caaaardiff home
An AAAA which reverberates down every Caaaardiff road
Matt Nõmme
Such is the popularity of the poem, Matt has released a print of the poem which is available via Cardiff Art Market in Canton. Or, as he puts it, Caaaardiff Aaaart Maaaarket.
The print is a scan of the original poem which was written on Matt’s old typewriter complete with the typewriter’s natural imperfections.
Regional accents for the win!
Happy Daze
Matt Nõmme’s debut poetry book ‘Happy Daze’ was released in November 2023.
Hear more of Matt’s poetry via his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattnommepoet/
See Matt live at The Flute & Tankard, Cardiff on 14 June.
Tickets can be found at: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/matt-nomme-poet/stand-up-punk-poetry/e-vlpaao
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