September 2011
69 posts
“In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is the king”
– Desiderius Erasmus
You know that moment...
when you feel more alive and awake than you have ever felt because you have discovered that thing that makes everything else make sense. That thing that makes you buzz with excitement because every day of your life suddenly has so much meaning and purpose.
That moment was today for me. There is nothing better than knowing your purpose in life and knowing what you have to offer the world.
Happy...
“When it comes to friends quality is always better than quantity”
– Indigo Williams
“Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their...”
– Bertrand Russell
“I call architecture frozen music”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Exhibition and the PAL girls
If I have learnt anything this year it has to be the importance of having the right minds around you. I met up with some of my friends this weekend at the Southbank to go over some projects we’ve been working on, but we ended up going to see an exhibition and getting into the most intellectually stimulating discussion.
We discussed everything from race to politics to what it means to be a...
Negritude poem: by Yamba Ouloguem, “Dear Husband”
Once your name was Bimbircokak
And everything was fine.
Then you became Victor-Emile-Louis-Henri-Joseph
And bought a dinner set.
I used to be your wife.
Now you call me spouse.
We used to eat together.
Now we’re separated by a table.
Calabash and ladle,
drinking gourd and couscous
are banished from our daily fare
by your paternal order.
We’re modern now, you say.
The tropic sun is hot,...
movements in poetry: Negritude
A Brief Guide to Negritude *sourced from poets.org* Negritude was both a literary and ideological movement led by French-speaking black writers and intellectuals. The movement is marked by its rejection of European colonization and its role in the African diaspora, pride in “blackness” and traditional African values and culture, mixed with an undercurrent of Marxist ideals. Its...
Next show: Dice Slam: a Hit the Ode Special
TimeThursday, October 13 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm
LocationFazeley Studios191 Fazeley Street, DigbethBirmingham, United Kingdom
Created ByHit the Ode
More InfoIs it a serious competition? Is it absurdist comedy? No, it’s the Dice Slam, a truly unique event bringing together an astounding number of top international performance poets and an absurd set of rules. The poets perform, we throw some dice,...
It's taken me 24 years to realise that I am a...
poets I recommend: Stephen Dunn- 'The Sudden Light...
My neighbor was a biker, a pusher, a dog
and wife beater. In bad dreams I killed him and once, in the consequential light of day, I called the Humane Society about Blue, his dog. They took her away and I readied myself, a baseball bat inside my door. That night I hear his wife scream and I couldn’t help it, that pathetic relief; her again, not me. It would be years before I’d...
“Collateral damage is code for: we killed innocent people.”
– Indigo Williams
BERNARD NOËL
BERNARD NOËL (from The New French Poetry, ed. Kelley & Khalfa) Where is poetry bound? (extract) (translated from the French by Peter Collier)
Metaphor and the poetic image worked to unfasten the whole system of references linking words to things and providing the justification for language. The writing hand no longer followed the rhythm of the mouth. The hand started to write under the...
I volunteer on sundays...
and today I had to walk from Westminster to Barbican with a group of 12, 15-16 year olds, all under my care. I spent my day saying, “Come on guys”. Feeling is only now returning to my legs and I am so tired. (To be fair I’ve walked from Liverpool Street to Thamesmead before…although I’m pretty sure I cried at some point)
I asked them about how people treat them...
Vapour
Do you remember the train journey to Cumbria?
I sat by the window in your hoodie and you sat opposite,
reading about something far away from me.
I exhaled vapour onto the window
and wrote your name in capitals,
each letter standing alone.
Do you remember how I gently tapped your foot with mine,
smiled to your name and drew a heart?
You smiled and like an adult appeasing a needy child
spelt my...
Wasn't gonna post it but ahhh well...
UNTITLED
You don’t know you’re asleep
until consciousness shakes the dust from your lids.
It arrives like your first breath, gentle
like the feel of light against shut eyes,
moving steady like a current lifting the weeds from the bed.
Consciousness is a silver braid of water poured into a clay vessel.
It is that ancient clock that never burns out.
The fervent ball alone on that long stretch of...
Anonymous asked: do you ever get insecure about youself or your work? how do you push through?
Baby Brother
mamoyobornfree:
I think Angel Gabriel
looks like you six
foot taller.
Your hands like
fattened strings
of a harp punctuated
by teardrop shaped nails.
I hate your stubborn, unyielding head,
like I love your eager, thirsty brain.
I hate that bossy tone in your voice
like I love the way you always
have something to teach me.
I must remind you sometimes,
You are not my father.
3 tags
POETRYEATER: Jericho Brown, "Lion" →
poetryeater:
I wish you tamed. I wish what you fear— A night alone in the forest. A father who leaves you there. I wish you Were ten years old again. And in love With Marvin Gaye. I wish you saw his daddy Shoot him. I wish you asthma. An attack In the field. A lump in your chest. A doctor Who won’t touch…
G.R.E.E.d.S Sampler 5 download link →
G.R.E.E.d.S Sampler 5
If you haven’t already, check out the poet G.R.E.E.d.S new sampler, he’s doing a lot of great things. The sampler is a necessary on the play list.
To listen and download check out the post above.
Poets I recommend: LOVE by Mimi Khalvati
When Someone sits on your bed
and strokes your hair for a long while
then quietly leaves,
though you feel the mattress
relinquish weight that anchored you
and float unsafe on a surface
that is even but seems to tilt,
though you hear him go, your anchorage
is now less to love than to night and day
whose death and resurrection
you are made implicit in.
The Thread-by Don Paterson
Jamie made his landing in the world
so hard he ploughed straight back into the earth. They caught him by the thread of his one breath and pulled him up. They don’t know how it held. And so today I thank what higher will brought us to here, to you and me and Russ, the great twin-engined swaying wingspan of us roaring down the back of Kirrie Hill and your two-year-old lungs somehow...
layasland asked: Thank you for being who you are. x
“worrying is praying for what you don’t want”
– heard it once on a documentary
Imagine a poem to be like a musical scale
and the emotion behind that poem to be the key of that scale. For instance, if anger were a note what note would it be?
That key determines the rhythm, tone and texture of that piece. Anything you play within the scale of that key will harmonize, and just like a musician who has mastered how keys work together, you will eventually be able to bend the rules.
But first you need to be able to hear...
May all good things find you this morning
Poets I recommend: Pablo Neruda, translated by...
THE BOOK OF QUESTIONS
III.
Tell me, is the rose naked
or is that her only dress?
Why do trees conceal
the splendor of their roots?
Who hears the regrets
of the thieving automobile?
Is there anything in the world sadder
than a train standing in the rain?
Good morning lovers
on my way to do some volunteer work :)
Anonymous asked: What inspires you?
