The venue for the All Good Poems Wear Travelling Shoes - Taste Merchants in Stuart St - is admittedly small, but it was standing room only for lovers of verse last night.
The situation was the same for the first of the two nights of the event on Saturday.
Organiser Ian Loughran said he was ''very happy about that, obviously''.
''Dunedin audiences leave things to the last minute, so you never know how it will go.''
The event, which boasted two former Burns Fellows, Emma Neale and Sue Wootton, featured poets reading their works, then other artists presenting their version of the poems through music and performance.
Loughran said he had an interest in poetry, music and theatre.
''I really wanted to see where creative people would take a poem.''
While poems covered subjects from death to cancer and the arms trade, Loughran started the night off on a lighter note with poems about Brazilian waxing, which included the line ''Mariah Carey has gone less hairy'', the ghosts of dead chickens in KFC, and the story of an unfortunate accident men suffer with trouser zips.
''I think it was successful,'' Loughran said after the performances.
With 17 performers involved in the event, there was enough variety for all tastes.
''I think there's poetry for everyone.''
Poems included everything from pathos to political themes, and from meaningful works to ''fun''.
''I was looking for diversity.''
He did not expect every member of the audience to like every piece.
''That was one of my goals - if you don't like one piece, there's another coming along quickly you might like.''
