Tuesday, November 30, 2010

poetry snapshots: adrian green

Business Breakfast

On a blue September dawn
the tide ebbs under London Bridge.
We walk across – a crowd
alive but hypnotised.
So many left undead
for croissants and a cappuccino.

And in the knowing,
unknowing,
and knowing again
of things we never
thought would matter,
breakfast sages
read our fortunes
in the coffee spoons,
project their fantasies
on office walls.

Later, on the Circle Line,
the salesmen with their laptops
watch a couple sharing sushi
from a plastic box.


Adrian Green

Previously published in Well Versed, poems from the Morning Star (Hearing Eye, ISBN 978-1-905082-42-1)
and Chorus and Coda (Littoral Press, ISBN 978-0-9550926-7-1).




About Adrian Green:
Adrian Green lives overlooking the sea at Southend. A former editor of SOL and reviews editor of Littoral, poems and reviews have appeared in several magazines and anthologies. His current collection, Chorus and Coda (ISBN 978-0955092671), is available from the Littoral Press.
See more at http://www.greenad.co.uk/ or listen at http://www.myspace.com/chorusandcoda

Monday, November 15, 2010

poetry snapshots: camilla reeve

The Long Journey of Humans

How old was I last night?
In the darkness and quiet
of my own back garden,
I looked up at a sky, deep indigo,
brushed with clouds of grey,
uplit apricot from the city,
and I felt so young.

The long journey of humans
stretched far ahead of me,
full of promise and wonder.
The eyes of unnamed stars
peered down between each cloud,
as strangers, hoped-for friends,
glance from the corner of a rock
and make a new land homely.

Standing there, I heard nothing
but wind riffling my hair,
rain dripping from leaves
the muffled stealth of paws
as a hunting cat passed by.

Now that the everyday
with its well-worn streets
and crowded timetables
is round me, I might be feeling
as old as humanity, as stale.
But I discovered in my mind
and smiling, the little girl
who stood in the dark.

She is still full of wonder
and delight, still looking out
and up and round her
at the enchanting and unknown,
where the return of daylight
has not this time achieved
the death of promise
or the end of mystery.


from collection, "Travels of a Spider",2006. ISBN 978-0-9556770-0-7, published through lulu.com.


Camilla says: Born too late to make sense of the last century I’m focusing on enjoying this one, by novel-writing, poetry and performance, a computer career, back-packing travel and chaotic attempts to transform my garden into a fertile wilderness. I’ve published two poetry collections and a third is underway, details at writing-with-anger-and-love.co.uk



Tuesday, November 02, 2010

poetry snapshots: michael wyndham



Know Your Enemy

The glitterball orbits the ballroom conjuring a flux
of nylon swing. Her calves twist, her Grable heels kick
out the fear of telegrams from the front line.

Chicago knights and New York zoots strut before
the White City girl like competing matadors; she slides
down a pageant of olive and khaki -

No rations tonight baby!

Blakeys clack-clack, club tie strides, a Brylcreem Moses
parts the dance floor, bringing down the tablets from
the judges' mountain. A tidy finger taps

the swinging shoulder of the GI -

"Strictly ballroom here laddie"





Michael Wyndham
"Know Your Enemy" was first runner-up in the 2006 Frogmore Press poetry prize and was included in the autumn 2006 issue. In June 2008, South Bank poetry magazine published 'Know Your Enemy' alongside other poems themed on London's past.

Michael says: I have been writing and performing poetry since May 2005. This poetic calling came to me while massacring London's insects and vermin during my former day job as a pest controller.

York Literature Festival HUB 2018 event, Tuesday, 20th March

I'm looking forward to my first event for absolutely ages - at the York Literature Festival HUB. Many thanks to YLF and Valley...