I am now confirmed to read on Monday 25th June at the Daily Story Stage at Gunwharf Quays at noon, run in celebration of the Boat Project.
I am taking part in ‘Make a noise in Libraries’ Week by offering poetry and percussion on Monday 18th June between 5pm and 6pm in the Central Library.
Joe McQuilken, Portsmouth Young Poet Laureate and I will be meeting at the following dates and times and welcome any other poets, writers or readers to join us to discuss future events and work –
Cosham Library Portsmouth: 15th June, 3pm - 4.30pm
Southsea Library Portsmouth: 6th July, 3pm - 4.30pm
This grand hall
Swells to the sounds of our voices
A symphony of conversations
Stretch beyond historic ceilings and walls
To grace this proud city
I am woodwind
Soft clarinet
Trying to compliment
The strings on the next table
As cutlery connects with bone china
Offering tuning forks, percussion, time and rhythm
Solo speeches to
Arias of laughter
Notes of friendship beginning as
Coffee spoons dance
Sharing dinner
We listen as every voice writes our chorus
Invited as guests, but leaving…
An Orchestra
A stone sends music across the ocean’s surface
Brave fingers intertwine to
Connect lovers walking across sands whilst
Dusk powders this pink skyline
Each fading second of light a photo opportunity of
Footprints erased as tides turn
Gracing us with washed pebbles
How this ocean - inspires
In every wave we are adventurers
Just waiting for experiences to find us
Keepsakes found in rounded stones
Lives and landscapes intertwined
Majestic buildings
Nestled to greet visitors
Oh how the energy of
People painting their memories in
Quintessential moments is
Remembered in these
Southsea dreams and cool summer evenings
That stretches to span generations
Universal beach days
Vibrant breezes, sandwiches and laughter
Why travel when you can journey right here?
X-Ray emotions revealing pride and belonging
Yes, this is our city, our passion, our compass - from A, all the way to…
Z
And right back again, to start over…
6am
Albert Road
Watching the first few arcs of light
Stretching out to meet my beautiful insomnia
I left you before dawn
Unable to witness this night and day growing between us
The broken ballet of two lovers
Discovering the dance of where their opposites collide
Embracing the first disagreement
That moonlight could not soften…
And somewhere,
Half-way between Henley Road and the King’s Theatre
I began to smile
Realising both the poetry and the weight of our argument
So, as this new day was rising
I turned to face the lilac strains of morning
As they were reaching out to try to hold back
The last few waves of night
And I stood by the ocean
To witness where my solitude
Would happily fall in to this sense of belonging
And if our love
Were a seaside picture postcard
I could too WISH YOU WERE HERE
Watching this day begin with me
The sky melting in to her colours
Of pinks, purples and blues
Realising how we should just simply
Make more time to
STOP
To stand still
And to watch the day rising
Joe McQuilken (Portsmouth Young Poet Laureate) and I will be meeting at the following dates and times and would welcome any other poets, writers or readers to join us to discuss future events and work:
Carnegie Library, Portsmouth
27th April: 3pm–4.30pm
North End Library, Portsmouth
18th May: 3pm–4.30pm
Cosham Library, Portsmouth
15th June: 3pm–4.30pm
Southsea Library, Portsmouth
6th July: 3pm-4.30pm
Poems do not begin on paper
But right here
Where oceans breathe in
As day and night grace each sunrise and sunset
Memories choreographed in etchings across wet sand
Summers spent as childhoods begin for the second time
Grown-ups flying kites as exhausted children sleep
Here, we are all archaeologists and explorers
Finding treasure in delicate shells
And the smoothest of pebbles
An aroma of sun lotions, ice-creams and sea breezes
As toddlers are gently lowered back in to car seats
This – the perfume of happiness
As crimson yawns and stretches across our skyline
Take one more look before you leave
As poems as discovered
Right here in these memories
Straight lines and right angles
Underlined by the years
Still standing strong
Watchful over turning tides and seasons
Summer days resonating with the
Echoes of chatter rising from craft fairs and wedding parties
Improvised music as busy crockery
Fills in the spaces between our conversations
With sweet jazz and percussion
All these memories
Stored in the energy of
Past, present and future colliding
In the beauty of moving veins and arteries of visitors
New histories
New life-stories
Generations come and gone and yet to come
But straight lines and right angles
Standing as if ageless
Always looking on…
House of Words
An evening celebrating Portsmouth, Home of Great Writing, from Dickens to Portsmouth Writers Hub
Thursday 29 March 2012
Menuhin Theatre, Central Library, Guildhall Square, Portsmouth PO1
7pm sharp
Admission £3/£2 concessions
Shimmering sunlight
Dances across the water
As the ocean breathes in
To reveal her alchemy and percussion
Of washing and smoothing over pebbles
I stop to pick up jade, silver, amethyst, amber, shell, driftwood
Or maybe even a millennium stone
With eternal fingerprints left in clay by Henry; six
Stamped with the number 246,054
Thrown to the tides twelve years ago
Treasures
Resurfacing
Like poems waiting for their moments
Can’t help but wonder if Henry - now 18 would remember
The day he threw
A stone, an idea, a memory in to the sea
Not knowing that it would wash up
All these years later
Find its’ way to my footprints, my fingertips and my imagination
One in a million reasons
To leave time-capsules
And for us to skim stones - now precious gems
Giving them back to the ocean for safe-keeping
Just in-case Henry might one day return searching for memories of his childhood
All our lives
We have been waiting
For this moment
To honour our dreams
To stand with pride
Taller than we have ever been
A country draws its’ breath
Thumbs and fingers methodically arch
Poised on start lines
To span beyond the boundaries
Of race tracks, televisions sets and inner-city skylines
Muscles stretch to bridge nations
Every beautiful heartbeat
Pounding in eloquent physical grace
Athletes rise to take the stage
Gathering swollen beads of sweat
Glistening in their expectant glory
Here, beyond medals
Smiling bravely from the inside
There is something universal -
An Olympic flame that we all carry
Just waiting for its’ moment in time
The drummers try their best to keep up with
The pounding of racing heartbeats
All lives in motion
Swollen streets now veins and arteries
Of people chasing every breath
Every beautiful exhausted victory
Rising
From the arms of an otherwise sleepy Sunday
Come and witness the endurance and resilience
The courage, the charity, the fall
And the RISE of the athlete
Racing on regardless of injury
Hear the echoes of cheers on this Southsea breeze
Waves breaking in restless percussion
As this city runs to
Keep alive the memories of so many no longer with us
In me, there is a yearning
And a realisation that I have
Lost too many years
Running only on the inside
Because suddenly -
I am a city,
I am an ocean
I am a philosophy of movement
Inspired by this community of energy and passion
AND –
I too want to run
With everything that I have
Taking all these smiles and regrets
All this love and loss
Racing for every sacred breath
Taking all my poems on to these crowded streets
Running through the pain barriers and beyond limitations
To release this celebration of worn-out aching metaphors and muscles
Across the finish line
YES -
One whole race older
But so much MORE
ALIVE
Even as we speak
Time is a proud heartbeat
Navigating towards destinies born to find us
It is in these ever-changing moments
We remember commuter trains
That wormed their way home
Whilst we stood on empty platforms
Traffic lights we made impatient eye contact with
As lifetimes passed by in
Red, crimson, vermillion, ruby, scarlet seconds
Never blinking to reveal that emerald eye
The closed signs arriving everywhere before us
Or walking in to meetings late
As a sea of faces turned to watch
It is never in the sum of all the missed moments
But, rather in the
Gifted
Brave seconds that our lives change course forever
Tonight
All the beating clocks will hold their breaths
As we rescue daylight from her dark winter
Whilst she reminds us
That the hours are always on our side
Dreams rise and fall and rise again
As life force pulses through our veins
A new rhythm dances
We time travel as three dimensional poems
One hour ahead of schedule
Knowing that it is never too late
To take words backwards or forwards
Standing with
A swollen sunrise of emotions
Alive with the freedom and beauty of letting go of
What has to be done
What has to be un-done
What time it is
But instead to simply be
Strong enough to let go of this hour
In the hope of finding something
Timeless
In between our silence
Introducing Sam Cox, Portsmouth’s second Poet Laureate. Sam is a poet who has performed regularly in Portsmouth and at national events for many years.
Born in 1974 in East London, she studied at the University of Greenwich achieving a B.A (Hons) in Humanities and then at Kings College London for a post graduate qualification. Now a Deputy Head Teacher, she has lived in Portsmouth for several years.
Sam’s poetry has been described as ‘exploring the rhythm of spoken word, at times combined with music, instruments and percussion to discover themes of community, belonging and identity. Inspired by landscapes both urban and coastal, Sam presents the reader with the beauty and insights borne of holding our experiences up to the light.’
Sam said, ‘This is a really exciting position and I’m looking forward to working with not only other poets, but musicians and other performers.
‘There are plenty of open mic sessions in the city, Aspex Gallery usually hold one. I would encourage people to hear poetry performed live as it’s a great introduction.’
Sam, who cites Dylan Thomas’ Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night as one of her favourite poems, added: ‘My year as poet laureate will hopefully be full of remarkable moments, I can’t wait to get started.’
Portsmouth News article on the new Portsmouth Poet Laureate and Young Portsmouth Poet Laureate.
