William Stopha is a poet, beat-smith and multimedia performer.
Will has been writing and performing for the last eight years to packed venues all over London and the UK. these venues including The Poet’s Lounge, The Etcetera Theatre, Farrago Poetry, Writer’s block, The Roundhouse, The Poetry Cafe, The Albany Theatre and The Soho Theatre.
Will has written and performed in two shows that he has taken to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. He is talented and his unique form has caught the eyes of many. Will has also been producing shows for the Camden Fringe, Synergy at London Bridge and The Big Dress festival, as well as performing with Apples and Snakes which is the leading organisation for performance poetry in England, with a national reputation for producing exciting and innovative participation and performance work in spoken word. Will has also performed in the London Poetry System and winning a Farrago Poetry Slam. The Farrago Poetry series has an established tradition of presenting well-known poets side-by-side with new, emerging writers, on a lively stage that is home to all. Will is also involved in trying to get something off the ground called The Really HUGE Poetry Project which is an attempt at a huge collaborative poem that you and anyone else can contribute to.
The whale that lost it's way is a prophetic word, a reminder, a prompt, an attention grabber. The poem invites a deeper reflection of the world around us. Art and poetry have been vehicles that have carried important messages of God's intervention in the world. From the stained glass windows of the medieval period depicting stories of the bible in stained glass to the poetry of the travelling minstrel that was pointed. The old testament is full of stories that were first remembered by god's people and retold before they were written down. Jesus in the Gospels spoke in stories, stories that were so simple but yet so sublime and so profound. But stories that had a twist at the end. William Stopha is of that genre. We really need poets and story tellers. The Whale that lost It's way is a dramatic telling of the whale that became stranded on the Thames and later died.
The whale lost its way
Heading for the North Atlantic Sea,
They say he just forgot to check the map,
Took the wrong exit and he couldn’t get back!
He Found himself stuck on a one way route,
The British Isles like a great roundabout and he was stuck on the loop,
The ring road, extra large vehicle
with a heavy goods load.
Poor fella,
Got redirected to the city centre,
On an accidental sight seeing adventure.
But who sent ya? Eh?
With Jonah in your belly and something to say
Like – ‘Listen London, there’s another way!’
I didn’t want you to die.
I prayed that the tide might come high,
The Thames rise,
Spill over its sides;
A clean up, city wide.
And we’d realise as ships capsize
And oil spills!
Quick, head for the hills!
Take the high ground.
Is that what you came to say?
Because we’re the Nineveh of today.
And I’m sorry you died that way,
Dried out on the boat’s deck
Buckets of water poured over
You lying there saying – ‘wait, I came to show ya.’
And now there’s another, even larger
Sicked up on the mud in Yorkshire
So we’re doing research to find out what brought ya,
You and your friend, to be beached on our border.
And when we looked, what we saw,
Were twenty and more
All in our channel around our shore.
They’re all off course, lost in our seas
Surely they can’t all have taken the wrong turn?
Please!
Someone go up there with a no entry sign
Maybe they’ll learn.
If you come this way, then you won’t return!
But then maybe that was the point?
Maybe that’s what you came to say,
‘Guys, I didn’t go the wrong way.
I didn’t fumble and stumble into waters that are toxic,
I did it on purpose to show you that you’ve lost it.
I did it to quicken and awaken concern,
Maybe it’s us lot that took the wrong turn.’
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