About Me

Often tender, always quirky, kind and frequently hilarious, Syd Meats has a songwriter’s ear for music and rhythm. A Syd Meats poem will make the sun come out in your heart.

Vanessa Lampert

Syd Meats is a poet and singer-songwriter. His songs have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4, but his poems haven’t.

As a poet he has performed at events and festivals around the UK, and was a 2019 Hammer & Tongue Regional Poetry Slam Finalist. He also ran Romsey’s grass-roots open mic event The Teapot Collective from 2014 to 2018.

His poem ‘The Piano has been Drinking at the Fountain in the Garden of Earthly Delights’ won first prize in the Hampshire Writers’ Society competition (Jan 2024). He has been shortlisted for Verve’s first Poem of the Month (April 2025) and Highly Commended in the Charm Poetry Prize (May 2025).

He is half of Hampshire’s Leading Panda Harmonium Duo, Panda-monium.

This poem contains some of my favourite lines from the whole competition.

Alan buckley, CHARM PRIZE Judge 2025