I have had a few features online since 2020 and been part of many projects, but it was 2018 the last time I was involved in Live performances. I tried to get back out in 2021 but found Covid anxiety was too intense.
I am still doing my best to isolate from the world due to Covid, (but I have had it so hoping I have a few months of immunity). I have only left home twice to perform live this year – the Resonate Festival DNA: Our Stories & Peter Sutton’s Elgar Country Book Launch.
Next Saturday I will be taking to the road again for a gig in Ironbridge. It seems strange but also exciting to have this possibility of live performance again after a great many years.
For more information on other events check out Offa’s Press.
Prompt: A love poem! …maybe you’ll find inspiration in one of my favorites, June Jordan’s “Poem for Haruko.”
I started with Wren Jones’ poem Redbird. It is a beautiful poem. In such a short form, Wren was able to make me feel as if I was there seeing the bird with her. I love nature poems and this one set me up for the day!
proclaims in red,
already
I’m richer
seeing
you.
I slid down a slight rabbit hole via Twitter again!
Next I enjoyed a leisurely wander around the current issue of Sporklet (Issue 17) and will return to look at past issues of this magazine.
I read:
Three poems by Amy Berkowitz: Gravitas: Chopping Wood, Gravitas: Sexism in Academia & Gravitas: The Size of the Problem.
Two poems by Kimberly Reyes: Upon the realization that you don’t have a natural habitat, (loved this title) & The Roost.
Then I came to the recommended poem by Gina Myers Two For the Future. A poem which reflects the strangeness of Covid times.
The entire year a practice in timelessness Our bodies cut in & out of the frame This dislocation like a dream—sleepwalking
I also read Futures (1-7). Before reading the next recommended poem by Becca Klaverfrom Derecho Diary August 5, August 11 & August 21.
From August 11:
cricket friend sheltering with us he’d chirped loudly all morning while I washed the sky blue sheets just barely dry
“such a quiet night I’ve never seen” no street lamps no cooling hum yes stars apologies for the romance of the sensory
today’s golden light feels like a lie to make yesterday seem impossible the gaslighting sky—
From August 21:
what rips through invisibly or with great gusts — this year’s power of air wind breath
I found this sequence of poems captivating. And possibly found where the prompt for today’s love poem came from.
As it’s Sunday and Mr G. and I woke stupidly early, I had time to read more of the issue and was enjoying the poems. I read LIFE FORCE, INTERIM & SELF PORTRAIT AS NEW YORK GEOGRAPHY by Niina Pollari.
From LIFE FORCE:
When you eat something, you take it apart with your body. You reject most of it, but some of it has to be made into you. This is like grief
I am a fan of SPORKLET now. An interesting mix of multi-art too.
Lastly I headed over to Poetry Foundation to read Poem for Haruko by June Jordan. Wow!
Maybe it was all the reading this morning but when I came to write I felt zapped. So I succumbed (for the first time in this 2022 challenge) to writing a haiku.