Joelle Taylor is a poet, spoken word artist, playwright and novelist. She is a former UK slam champion and founder and artistic director of the Poetry Society’s national solo youth slam SLAMbassadors UK. She has produced four plays for theatre as well as several texts on performance practice. This is her second poetry collection.
"Joelle observes the reality of modern-day life, pinpoints the absurdities and the injustices, and then reminds us that we are human, and that sometimes the best way to make sense of it is through poetry. The thing I have always liked about Joelle’s poetry is that it has guts, it has rhythm, and it has attitude. The thing I like about this collection is that it continues that tradition.
In these times of austerity, hypocrisy, political corruption, and mindless reality television, we need poetry like this. Joelle Taylor does not mess about. Her poetry is fearless. It gets right to the point.
Her poetry has purpose."
Benjamin Zephaniah
"A city gritty heart-beaten tattoo."
John Hegley
"Joelle Taylor continues to propel poetry in not only innovative but in very crucial ways. Her work launches itself from a world that has been lived in a thousand hapless times, managing to unearth within the reader the deepest sense of tragedy, love and hope."
Anthony Anaxagorou
"The title misleads us, as these are the tumultuously heart-rending words of a woman who is actually very much here, there, everywhere. Joelle Taylor has written an epic collection of raw emotion distilled into a distinctly unique style of language. Put this in your bag, on your tongue, in your chest."
Sabrina Mahfouz
"Joelle Taylor’s a shape-shifter, myth-maker, linguistic risk-taker; poetical activist, surrealist with a raised fist. She knows how to handle a pen. Razor sharp, tattooed or AWOL, her women are the best dressed men. Her material – fractured glass and human skin; the effect – a maze, a mosaic, a hall of mirrors. She redefines the dispossessed, the caged in and gives them a way out."
Patience Agbabi
A REPERCUSSÃO DO MOVIMENTO BLACK LIVES MATTER NA TWITTOSFERA BRASILEIRALucas Reis
Análise das menções no Twitter ao movimento Black Lives Matter no Brasil, entre maio e julho de 2020, feita pela equipe da Zygon AdTech usando técnicas de Social Listening e Big Data.
The Failed Idealist's Guide to the Tatty Truth by Fergus McGonigalBurning Eye
Fergus McGonigal takes Ogden Nash’s notion of a poem being an essay which rhymes and targets the unsentimental truth about parenthood, pseudo-intellectual pretentiousness and pomposity, and what happens when the idealism of youth has given way to the disappointment of middle-age. As you would expect of a slam veteran, Fergus’s poems are comic entertainments but beneath the manic laughter there always lies a grain of familiar truth.
‘Fergus McGonigal reaches the parts which other poets cannot reach’
CHELTENHAM POETRY FESTIVAL
‘Bold, brash and brilliant!’
WORCESTER LITFEST AND FRINGE
‘Vibrant, wild and funny, and that’s just his hair. Fergus McGonigal is a poet and performer of verve, energy and pizzaz. Shame he can’t spell his name properly.’
ELVIS MCGONAGALL
Sweat-borne Secrets by Sally Jenkinson SAMPLEBurning Eye
This short collection confirms Sally Jenkinson as a poet of great talent. In the twelve poems presented here she demonstrates an individual voice that many a more seasoned poet would kill for. This is poetry from the messy world of real life, where going through the mill and the mire ‘Stellared, smoking, sinning, choking’, is all part of the party. Sally has an exceptional ability to capture a moment not only as a well crafted image but as an adept evocation of the emotion we feel in our hearts and stomachs. A confident debut from a poet whose name will become familiar.
The world is a confusing, terrifying, exciting, sexy, smelly place that makes simultaneously more and less sense the more time you spend in it. This collection of poems, poem-shaped rants, rant-shaped monologues, whimsical asides, imagined conversations, mutated anecdotes and existentially terrified howls at the moon is about as pure a manifestation of Stef Mo's (Stefan Mohamed) relationship with the world as you could hope to experience, short of piloting a miniaturised submarine directly into his brain. This, incidentally, will be the delivery mechanism for his second collection, except he'll be in the submarine and it'll be your brain.
Stef Mo is the performing poetry and miscellaneous noise version of writer Stefan Mohamed, like when you get Batman action figures in special situation-specific armour, like Underwater Ambush Batman or Parisian Subterfuge Batman, except with words. He was born in London but he's from Mid Wales, and now he lives in Bristol. He has performed poetry in a pub, in a field, in a yurt, in someone's living room and at London's Roundhouse. His first novel, Bitter Sixteen, was published in 2015 by Salt Publishing and was the winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize for new writers.
Alternative Beach Sports by Michelle Madsen sampleBurning Eye
Michell Madsen is a good example of a growing band of poets who have learnt their craft by performing live. If you only encountered her poetry on the page however, you would just think "poet" and find no need to get weighed down by a "performance" prefix or wonder whether this is that mysterious Spoken Word you have heard about.
Maybe Michelle is a cross over artist who is at ease in both poetry worlds, she certainly understands better than most that “page and stage” operate inside the same tent. The poems collected here show a flair for structure and technique that only serves to strengthen work written first and foremost with the microphone in mind. From wild romance to dark satire Michelle’s poetry contemplates love, lust, physics, politics, identity and gastronomic oddities.
‘Michelle Madsen is one of the few poets I know whose work is as good on the page as it is performed. Her poems are what I send to those who protest that spoken word poetry is not proper poetry.’
Hollie McNish
‘Promises sparkle, and champagne and glittery
dresses. As do lying eyes, glass in the gutter and the hen-do aftermath. Whether it’s sported proudly or tossed to the kerb, an engagement ring shines, a winning smile gleams and Michelle Madsen’s poetry surely sparkles.’
Tim Wells
‘Michelle Madsen is a top bird!’
Salena Godden
Are You As Single As That Cream? by Amy McAllister Burning Eye
Are You As Single As That Cream? is the debut from UK Anti-Slam Champion and actress Amy McAllister. The Dublin-born rising star of the UK spoken word scene writes about haggis, robots, illicit affairs, and International Pillow Fight Day. This book is for anyone who has ever fallen for a flatmate, a robot, a stranger, a pipedream, a 1948 Volkswagen Beetle, or someone else’s spouse. Oops.
Opposite the Tour Bus by Sophia Walker SAMPLEBurning Eye
Having been advised to 'Always travel in the direction opposite the tourbus' Sophia Walker set out to get away from the big noise, big tourist attraction, tick box bucket list experiences of life and find out what was happening quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) on the other side of the street or the less visited part of town. The poems collected here tell those stories whether that is an eye opening report from a sex education workshop in an everyday British town, or something more harrowing from Irag or Africa. Sophia points out that it is not always the journey but the landing that counts, the coming back. How it is not the specific moment of an experience that tells the full story but also what comes afterwards. How those who seek to damage and harass unwittingly leave strength and resilience in their wake. These are the less-heard stories. Some are Sophia's – told first hand, some she witnessed. All are true.
Post-modern, political, and bawdy, Poor Queen is packed with dark humour. Mab Jones is a popular performer across the UK, gracing the stage of pub, club, theatre and festival tent. She projects the frustrations of ordinary people and everyday life in a straight talking rhythmic blast
of comic poetry.
Maths, science, retro arcade games, and what it feels like to be stood up in a restaurant by an entire poetry society. Dan Simpson considers them all and more in his first collection.
Unlike many a debut poet, Dan has given this collection a thorough stress test on the live circuit, and many of these poems have been commissioned for public projects. Dan is a poet who likes to play around with form. He likes to deconstruct and get a bit meta with the mental algorithms that sit beneath a poem.
The result is an accessible and enjoyable collection of poems for geeks, nerds, and anyone who likes playing with words.
When I Grow Up I Want To Be Mary Beard by Megan BeechBurning Eye
Burning Eye seeks to break down some of the barriers that are put up between young poets and publishers to make it more accessible for poets to put work out early in their career. This chapbook from Megan Beech is the third example of Burning Eye working with a young poet in this way. Although still in her second year at University Megan has already caught attention with her infectious reeling wordplay, but, as is already evident in When I Grow Up I Want to be Mary Beard, she is quickly moving on into more complex writing. Megan is not afraid of speaking her mind and grappling with political themes with a confidence missing in many older poets. When I Grow Up To Be Mary Beard captures the sound of a resurgent feminism that demands to be heard and marks Megan out as a name to watch.
The Trouble With Compassion by Kirtsen LuckinsBurning Eye
The Trouble With Compassion is a collection tinged by Buddhism, flavoured by the poet's attempt to see herself and others through the lens of loving-kindness. Even the really annoying ones. Even snails. Kirsten's poems cut 21st century Zen with a shot of humour as they hone in on the truth at the heart of our contradictory world.
A REPERCUSSÃO DO MOVIMENTO BLACK LIVES MATTER NA TWITTOSFERA BRASILEIRALucas Reis
Análise das menções no Twitter ao movimento Black Lives Matter no Brasil, entre maio e julho de 2020, feita pela equipe da Zygon AdTech usando técnicas de Social Listening e Big Data.
The Failed Idealist's Guide to the Tatty Truth by Fergus McGonigalBurning Eye
Fergus McGonigal takes Ogden Nash’s notion of a poem being an essay which rhymes and targets the unsentimental truth about parenthood, pseudo-intellectual pretentiousness and pomposity, and what happens when the idealism of youth has given way to the disappointment of middle-age. As you would expect of a slam veteran, Fergus’s poems are comic entertainments but beneath the manic laughter there always lies a grain of familiar truth.
‘Fergus McGonigal reaches the parts which other poets cannot reach’
CHELTENHAM POETRY FESTIVAL
‘Bold, brash and brilliant!’
WORCESTER LITFEST AND FRINGE
‘Vibrant, wild and funny, and that’s just his hair. Fergus McGonigal is a poet and performer of verve, energy and pizzaz. Shame he can’t spell his name properly.’
ELVIS MCGONAGALL
Sweat-borne Secrets by Sally Jenkinson SAMPLEBurning Eye
This short collection confirms Sally Jenkinson as a poet of great talent. In the twelve poems presented here she demonstrates an individual voice that many a more seasoned poet would kill for. This is poetry from the messy world of real life, where going through the mill and the mire ‘Stellared, smoking, sinning, choking’, is all part of the party. Sally has an exceptional ability to capture a moment not only as a well crafted image but as an adept evocation of the emotion we feel in our hearts and stomachs. A confident debut from a poet whose name will become familiar.
The world is a confusing, terrifying, exciting, sexy, smelly place that makes simultaneously more and less sense the more time you spend in it. This collection of poems, poem-shaped rants, rant-shaped monologues, whimsical asides, imagined conversations, mutated anecdotes and existentially terrified howls at the moon is about as pure a manifestation of Stef Mo's (Stefan Mohamed) relationship with the world as you could hope to experience, short of piloting a miniaturised submarine directly into his brain. This, incidentally, will be the delivery mechanism for his second collection, except he'll be in the submarine and it'll be your brain.
Stef Mo is the performing poetry and miscellaneous noise version of writer Stefan Mohamed, like when you get Batman action figures in special situation-specific armour, like Underwater Ambush Batman or Parisian Subterfuge Batman, except with words. He was born in London but he's from Mid Wales, and now he lives in Bristol. He has performed poetry in a pub, in a field, in a yurt, in someone's living room and at London's Roundhouse. His first novel, Bitter Sixteen, was published in 2015 by Salt Publishing and was the winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize for new writers.
Alternative Beach Sports by Michelle Madsen sampleBurning Eye
Michell Madsen is a good example of a growing band of poets who have learnt their craft by performing live. If you only encountered her poetry on the page however, you would just think "poet" and find no need to get weighed down by a "performance" prefix or wonder whether this is that mysterious Spoken Word you have heard about.
Maybe Michelle is a cross over artist who is at ease in both poetry worlds, she certainly understands better than most that “page and stage” operate inside the same tent. The poems collected here show a flair for structure and technique that only serves to strengthen work written first and foremost with the microphone in mind. From wild romance to dark satire Michelle’s poetry contemplates love, lust, physics, politics, identity and gastronomic oddities.
‘Michelle Madsen is one of the few poets I know whose work is as good on the page as it is performed. Her poems are what I send to those who protest that spoken word poetry is not proper poetry.’
Hollie McNish
‘Promises sparkle, and champagne and glittery
dresses. As do lying eyes, glass in the gutter and the hen-do aftermath. Whether it’s sported proudly or tossed to the kerb, an engagement ring shines, a winning smile gleams and Michelle Madsen’s poetry surely sparkles.’
Tim Wells
‘Michelle Madsen is a top bird!’
Salena Godden
Are You As Single As That Cream? by Amy McAllister Burning Eye
Are You As Single As That Cream? is the debut from UK Anti-Slam Champion and actress Amy McAllister. The Dublin-born rising star of the UK spoken word scene writes about haggis, robots, illicit affairs, and International Pillow Fight Day. This book is for anyone who has ever fallen for a flatmate, a robot, a stranger, a pipedream, a 1948 Volkswagen Beetle, or someone else’s spouse. Oops.
Opposite the Tour Bus by Sophia Walker SAMPLEBurning Eye
Having been advised to 'Always travel in the direction opposite the tourbus' Sophia Walker set out to get away from the big noise, big tourist attraction, tick box bucket list experiences of life and find out what was happening quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) on the other side of the street or the less visited part of town. The poems collected here tell those stories whether that is an eye opening report from a sex education workshop in an everyday British town, or something more harrowing from Irag or Africa. Sophia points out that it is not always the journey but the landing that counts, the coming back. How it is not the specific moment of an experience that tells the full story but also what comes afterwards. How those who seek to damage and harass unwittingly leave strength and resilience in their wake. These are the less-heard stories. Some are Sophia's – told first hand, some she witnessed. All are true.
Post-modern, political, and bawdy, Poor Queen is packed with dark humour. Mab Jones is a popular performer across the UK, gracing the stage of pub, club, theatre and festival tent. She projects the frustrations of ordinary people and everyday life in a straight talking rhythmic blast
of comic poetry.
Maths, science, retro arcade games, and what it feels like to be stood up in a restaurant by an entire poetry society. Dan Simpson considers them all and more in his first collection.
Unlike many a debut poet, Dan has given this collection a thorough stress test on the live circuit, and many of these poems have been commissioned for public projects. Dan is a poet who likes to play around with form. He likes to deconstruct and get a bit meta with the mental algorithms that sit beneath a poem.
The result is an accessible and enjoyable collection of poems for geeks, nerds, and anyone who likes playing with words.
When I Grow Up I Want To Be Mary Beard by Megan BeechBurning Eye
Burning Eye seeks to break down some of the barriers that are put up between young poets and publishers to make it more accessible for poets to put work out early in their career. This chapbook from Megan Beech is the third example of Burning Eye working with a young poet in this way. Although still in her second year at University Megan has already caught attention with her infectious reeling wordplay, but, as is already evident in When I Grow Up I Want to be Mary Beard, she is quickly moving on into more complex writing. Megan is not afraid of speaking her mind and grappling with political themes with a confidence missing in many older poets. When I Grow Up To Be Mary Beard captures the sound of a resurgent feminism that demands to be heard and marks Megan out as a name to watch.
The Trouble With Compassion by Kirtsen LuckinsBurning Eye
The Trouble With Compassion is a collection tinged by Buddhism, flavoured by the poet's attempt to see herself and others through the lens of loving-kindness. Even the really annoying ones. Even snails. Kirsten's poems cut 21st century Zen with a shot of humour as they hone in on the truth at the heart of our contradictory world.
Light at the end of the tenner by Andrew Graves sampleBurning Eye
In this follow up to his debut collection Citizen Kaned, Andrew Graves weaves nostalgia for “second hand Saturday record shops” with the colour of contemporary multi-cultural urban Britain in a cadence that is all his own. The poetry of Andrew ‘Mulletproof’ Graves is raw and gritty, with a dose of adroit comedy, as he champions the underdogs and underclass. His unique worldview is tinted by the dark lenses of the coolest shades in the shop. Truly he is a troubled poet for troubled times.
The first collection by poet Jess Green is taken from her spoken word show set in an inner city secondary school suffering the cuts and blows of the Coalition government. Burning Books champions the underdogs; the unnoticed and unheard stories bearing the gritty reality of the UK’s education system.
Jess Green hit the headlines when her poem ‘Dear Mr Gove’ went viral with over 290,000 views in the first week of its release on YouTube. Since then she has won critical acclaim for her shows at the Edinburgh Fringe and has performed at festivals including Glastonbury. Her poetry resonates with audiences from school halls to festival tents. Jess has a solemn wit which seeks to bring social and political issues to the forefront of her personal stories.
Rob Auton follows the success of In Heaven The Onions Make You Laugh with a deeper darker, richer collection of his trademark micro stories and poems from the other side. PETROL HONEY features work from the Edinburgh fringe shows (the Yellow Show and the Sky Show) that have earned him cult status and a growing army of fans. PETROL HONEY explores the deeper meaning of the colour yellow, whether Lurpack is available in Heaven, and what happens in a Supermarket when the lights go out. PETROL HONEY introduces us to Nigel who runs the weather and will teach you to sing the Normal Song on the bus. You will never look at the world in the same way again once Rob Auton has taught you how to throw stones into the future.
About the author:
Rob Auton is an expatriate Yorkshireman living in the alien environment of Walthamstow. He performs regularly all over the UK and is part of London's Bang Said The Gun stand up poetry collective. He has taken two one man shows to the Edinburgh Fringe and hit the headlines in August 2013 when a throw away gag won the Dave Funniest Joke of the Edinburgh fringe award. He is the future of British comic poetry. You heard it here first.
Sixteen is a free online magazine that aims to use the 1916 centenary to help emerging and professional writers craft new work based on the 1916 Easter Rising. We are deeply interested in how Ireland has changed in the last 100 years since and want to explore how the events of that week in 1916 have shaped us as a nation today or if they did at all.
As men steer their ships by the attractions
of the star, so the world is guided by its
faith. God rules life, and the soul of man
is where God meets man and gives him com-
mission for the governance of the world. The
halls of palaces where kings meet ambassadors
are splendid with riches. How royal ought
to be the chambers where man meets God, and
into which come the royal retinues of noble
thoughts and faiths. We fill our houses with
tawdry decorations, but Emerson says: "The
best ornaments of our homes are the friends
who visit us." The guest-chamber is best
tenanted which has the noblest guests.
Similar to The Woman Who Was Not There by Joelle Taylor SAMPLE (19)
‘वोटर्स विल मस्ट प्रीवेल’ (मतदाताओं को जीतना होगा) अभियान द्वारा जारी हेल्पलाइन नंबर, 4 जून को सुबह 7 बजे से दोपहर 12 बजे तक मतगणना प्रक्रिया में कहीं भी किसी भी तरह के उल्लंघन की रिपोर्ट करने के लिए खुला रहेगा।
31052024_First India Newspaper Jaipur.pdfFIRST INDIA
Find Latest India News and Breaking News these days from India on Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Lifestyle and Coronavirus News in India and the world over that you can't miss. For real time update Visit our social media handle. Read First India NewsPaper in your morning replace. Visit First India.
CLICK:- https://firstindia.co.in/
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ys jagan mohan reddy political career, Biography.pdfVoterMood
Yeduguri Sandinti Jagan Mohan Reddy, often referred to as Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, is an Indian politician who currently serves as the Chief Minister of the state of Andhra Pradesh. He was born on December 21, 1972, in Pulivendula, Andhra Pradesh, to Yeduguri Sandinti Rajasekhara Reddy (popularly known as YSR), a former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, and Y.S. Vijayamma.
role of women and girls in various terror groupssadiakorobi2
Women have three distinct types of involvement: direct involvement in terrorist acts; enabling of others to commit such acts; and facilitating the disengagement of others from violent or extremist groups.
27052024_First India Newspaper Jaipur.pdfFIRST INDIA
Find Latest India News and Breaking News these days from India on Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Lifestyle and Coronavirus News in India and the world over that you can't miss. For real time update Visit our social media handle. Read First India NewsPaper in your morning replace. Visit First India.
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Welcome to the new Mizzima Weekly !
Mizzima Media Group is pleased to announce the relaunch of Mizzima Weekly. Mizzima is dedicated to helping our readers and viewers keep up to date on the latest developments in Myanmar and related to Myanmar by offering analysis and insight into the subjects that matter. Our websites and our social media channels provide readers and viewers with up-to-the-minute and up-to-date news, which we don’t necessarily need to replicate in our Mizzima Weekly magazine. But where we see a gap is in providing more analysis, insight and in-depth coverage of Myanmar, that is of particular interest to a range of readers.
हम आग्रह करते हैं कि जो भी सत्ता में आए, वह संविधान का पालन करे, उसकी रक्षा करे और उसे बनाए रखे।" प्रस्ताव में कुल तीन प्रमुख हस्तक्षेप और उनके तंत्र भी प्रस्तुत किए गए। पहला हस्तक्षेप स्वतंत्र मीडिया को प्रोत्साहित करके, वास्तविकता पर आधारित काउंटर नैरेटिव का निर्माण करके और सत्तारूढ़ सरकार द्वारा नियोजित मनोवैज्ञानिक हेरफेर की रणनीति का मुकाबला करके लोगों द्वारा निर्धारित कथा को बनाए रखना और उस पर कार्यकरना था।
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Find Latest India News and Breaking News these days from India on Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Lifestyle and Coronavirus News in India and the world over that you can't miss. For real time update Visit our social media handle. Read First India NewsPaper in your morning replace. Visit First India.
CLICK:- https://firstindia.co.in/
#First_India_NewsPaper
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Find Latest India News and Breaking News these days from India on Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Lifestyle and Coronavirus News in India and the world over that you can't miss. For real time update Visit our social media handle. Read First India NewsPaper in your morning replace. Visit First India.
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In a May 9, 2024 paper, Juri Opitz from the University of Zurich, along with Shira Wein and Nathan Schneider form Georgetown University, discussed the importance of linguistic expertise in natural language processing (NLP) in an era dominated by large language models (LLMs).
The authors explained that while machine translation (MT) previously relied heavily on linguists, the landscape has shifted. “Linguistics is no longer front and center in the way we build NLP systems,” they said. With the emergence of LLMs, which can generate fluent text without the need for specialized modules to handle grammar or semantic coherence, the need for linguistic expertise in NLP is being questioned.
The Woman Who Was Not There by Joelle Taylor SAMPLE
1.
2. Joelle Taylor is a poet, spoken word artist, playwright and
novelist. She has performed both nationally and internationally at
venues as diverse as the 100 Club, the Royal Festival Hall,
Parliament, Zimbabwe, Buckingham Palace, Glastonbury Festival,
Botswana, the Royal Court, Ronnie Scot’s, school assemblies,
classrooms, prisons and strange ships. She is a former UK slam
champion and founder and artistic director of the Poetry Society’s
national solo youth slam SLAMbassadors UK. She has produced
four plays for theatre as well as several texts on performance
practice. This is her second poetry collection.
htp://joelletaylordotorg.wordpress.com
3. The Woman
Who Was Not There
Joelle Taylor
Burning Eye
5. The Last Poet Standing
(I)
I am the last poet standing
on this blank stage
of bruised pavements,
broken with missed opportunities
and well-aimed misunderstandings.
They say our children are too demanding.
The scent of sweat at the base of the spine
carried on wolves of wind
lures the gangs in.
Even the air we breathe has chalk lines around it;
police barrier tape surrounds it
while the skin of our streets
is tatooed with grin and gut graffiti,
the city’s obituary
cut by street artists, cultural terrorists and infant infantry,
sprayed in blood and ink
Our young are force-fed on vulnerability and violence.
Their lullabies are the cries of police sirens
and the echo of doors slamming late under midnight moons as
wide as children’s eyes.
She didn’t come home again tonight.
She never will.
But that child
will wait for her for the rest of his life.
15
6. (II)
These canals, these tracks, these umbilical streets,
these arteries of our cities
are clogged with discarded dreams and shopping trolleys.
Our kids die in school corridors,
not just in intangible, illegal, immoral wars
but the simpler war between
self-respect and self-esteem.
Children,
on these roads it is expected that you will stumble fumble
HUMBLE your grip on your dream –
but they are the only things we have,
these delusions of equality.
So stand up, speak free, exercise linguistic liberty,
shut up and speak
because disappointment is viral
to the point where low expectation equals survival
and when there is litle sense of truth, honour and justice
it is tempting to become tribal.
(III)
Our thin children have dug themselves in to their own fragile skin
and hide behind sandbags, strips of colour, postcodes and lies
and a cheap pound shop pride
and a knife.
Always a knife –
that reflects the hand that holds it;
the blade reflects the hand that holds it.
16
7. When you see your face
can you remember your name?
Our fathers are pugilist or foetal,
boxers or babies,
missing in action,
a paste link in the cheap chain reaction
that leaves us lost in our own living rooms
and he,
he is just an empty chair, an empty promise
or the hierarchy of the fist above the kiss,
a shadow receding in the mist,
retreating in the mist.
Fear is your father forgeting your name.
It’s geting dark.
We are a long way from home
and from a distance
that drained and greying tower block
is a gravestone
and every window lit is a word upon it.
But who will write our epitaphs when all the poets have gone?
Who will write our epitaphs when all the poets have gone?
Who is going to write our epitaphs when all the young poets have
gone?
We will never rest in peace –
not while police stand guard outside school gates
and children have Kentucky fried complexions
and education is dependent upon government inspection
and knowledge is privilege
and the libraries of our lives are pillaged.
17
8. We will never rest in peace –
not while children cannot spell their own names
and they are the monsters beneath their own beds
and they’re afraid of themselves and everything they wish they’d
said
and the colour of ink is red
and this whole town is proof-marked in blood.
Not while there is one poet left standing.
(IV)
We have been worshipping false prophets for false profits:
the cult of celebrity,
the cynical, cyclical celebration of hypocrisy
that allows us to watch the outside world as though it is reality TV
while our children are outside
bent-kneed
picking broken glass from their eyes,
broken class.
You see,
there was never an end to slavery.
We just don’t define it anymore simply by ethnicity
but by economy.
Can you hear the gangs howling
from the plains of Peckham to the hard lands of Hackney?
They have your scent.
18
9. (VI)
You will see me.
You will see poetry
writen among the broken glass and the graffiti,
starring in the shatered lenses of CCTV.
You will see poetry.
You will see poetry
in the Braille of night skies,
in the length of time a parent takes to say goodbye,
son, see you soon,
in the harvest moon of children’s eyes
or that girl perched on the lip of the tower block preparing to fly
as wild birds escape the gilded bars of her ornamental rib cage,
even in the ganglands’ wasteland warrior cries.
Every one of these tower blocks is a book.
Open it.
There is hope in it.
There is poetry.
19
10. No Man’s Land
His face was a foreign country
and his tongue was a concealed gun.
His laugh was an air raid siren
and his mouth a deep cave dug in Iraqi earth,
a shallow grave on the edge of town.
His beard was the barbed-wire fence that surrounded the camp
and his skin was a hand-writen map sewn into his shirt,
a deserted field at midnight.
His eyes were abandoned soft buried landmines
and his voice was radio static caught between stations.
His ribs were the gripped bars of a Guantanamo Bay cage
and his lips the careful line at Customs,
the border between territories.
And he walked like a school child lost in the rubble of her home
and he spoke like a low-flying plane looking to land.
Welcome to England.
Asalaam alaikum.
But Immigration Central was a love leter writen in another
language
and when he smiled
his teeth
were the New York
skyline.
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11. International Pen Pal
It is strange to think that everything I write or perform and every
positive workshop I lead will be taxed and that money transformed into
weapons of war. An estimated 17,400 civilians have been killed since the
war in Afghanistan began. I will work with the refugees of that war, and
will be taxed per poem I help create and write myself. That tax will be
used to create more refugees of war who I will then go and work with.
This poem is a bullet.
Each hammered word
the march of boots.
Each strike of type
a semi-automatic ratle.
I have writen armies;
do not listen to me.
This poem is friendly fire.
This poem is
the shifting of the earth,
the assassin that sleeps beneath her feet
as she leaves early that day to collect thin firewood
that when lit will keep her family cold for centuries.
This poem has waited years
and when it speaks,
opens its red mouth,
the whole world falls to its knees and weeps.
She is an explosion wrapped in ribbon.
May I be forgiven.
This poem is a young man
uprooted from Customs
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12. and poted in a tight airless room
before men
with tight airless smiles
and asked to spell his name
again,
spell it again.
This poem is a passport
torn in two,
stamped
with boot marks.
This poem is a young girl
in burkha and Nike
hiding beneath a bus seat
as strange-dressed men come
and pick off the women one by one,
sniper smiles held to their heads
as soldiers look to the whispering men to speak;
this poem is the last thing she reads.
This poem has taken language;
each word writen here has scrubbed out a mother tongue.
This poem has eaten history.
This poem is history.
This poem lies silent beneath dusty roads
or waits at the outskirts of woods
or bursts into a house at 3am
sobbing through oiled shotgun-barrel eyes
with mouths of mass graves.
This poem has lined relatives up against walls
and told them to dance.
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13. Dance.
This poem wants to be a roof,
it wants to be wood,
a school desk,
a bus seat.
It wants to be the correct spelling of a name,
a sleeping relative,
silence.
This poem wants to be a poem
but
this poem is a bullet.
A real poet would not write it.
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