Poetry reading in Tokyo

A Poetry ID member Yuko Minamikawa Adams is going to read her Japanese poems with her poetry friends in Tokyo:

Sunday, 4th December 2016

3pm starts

Cafe Lavanderia, Koyosha Bldg. 2-12-9 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

Yuko Minamikawa Adams, Misako Yarita, Junko Arakawa, Maki Kitazume, Shinobu Nagasawa and Kanako Ura.

Reading at David’s Bookshop on 16 June

Paper Cuts – New anthology by Poetry ID

Poems by Gareth Writer-Davies, Ann Copeland, John Gohorry, Barbara Wheeler, Adrian Boddy, Ríonach Aiken, Dennis Tomlinson, Nicola Jackson, Simon Cockle, Nicky Phillips, Richard J.N. Copeland, Clare Crossman, Adam Warwicker, Yuko Minamikawa Adams, David Van-Cauter, Rose Saliba and Jay Ward

Click here to contact us if you’re interested.

Poetry Reading by Stuart Henson

Click here to see a bigger image.

Valentine

Sewing satin hearts,
they make the same shape of love
in a factory.

Just revisiting my trip last year to cheer the dark days of a UK January.

Snorkelling, Peter Island. February 2015.

I lie suspended, spread eagled, hanging between the air I know

and the world all new to me below. I am a meniscus,

fine balanced, playing the surface tension,

suspended in the earth’s curve mirroring the surface.

I am motionless and washed by the gentle swell,

suspended. Gently I work my limbs, newly given force by fins.

A swish and I head in, expecting the first stubby sponges,

deepest russet red, giant hand corals planted on the rock

where I had left them the day before, planted in my mind’s eye.

Anticipation, breathing steady through the plastic tube and valve.

 

And here they are, staking out this submarine garden.

A lilac flat fish sails by with gentle subtle hues

against the soft cream sand. Angel fish trick the eye

with yellow band and rearguard spot, sightless protectors

to the little band. Astonishing jagged arrow fish graze the algal lawn,

pale cream and Art Deco arrow dart with  brilliant turquoise fin.

The  glitter of the damsel fish, electric blue and flat,

and tiny wriggly young, their fat pubescent tummies

deepest purest blue, with salt- crystal turquoise spangles,

fritillaries of the seas.

 

And back and forth the purple sea fans sway,

sieving the seas for all of time, and pipe fish roll

along the sandy floor in ceaseless swish and sway of swell upon the reef,

drawing me in. I am almost done, just revisiting each gem

in disbelief, imprinting on the inner eye.

A great grey grouper sails stately by

with pink and fleshy lips, impassive. I ate his cousin

the night before so wince apology.

 

And how would Darwin not have dwelt upon these wonders

had he seen, foundation of the origins of earth revealed

through a simple plastic tube and mask

and wondrous light.

New Year

The year becomes new
on each 1st January
while I get older.

Yuko

Hitchin Market on Sat. 28 November

Our anthology will be sold at Hitchin Market on Saturday 28 November. See the details about the Hitchin Markets.

Barnes/Chiswick and Amersham Stanza Bonanza

Here I am with my friends from Barnes & Chiswick, plus the Amersham poets, at the Poetry Café in London last night. A good time was had by all.

October Reading at Poetry Cafe

Poetry ID member Dennis Tomlinson will be taking part in a reading, one of the Stanza Bonanza series, at the Poetry Cafe, Covent Garden, at 7.30 pm on Wednesday 28 October. Entry is free. He will be representing  his other stanza, Barnes & Chiswick, together with Paul Attwell, Nayna Kumari, Dino Mahoney, Diane Mulholland and Michael Weightman. The other participants will be coming from Amersham/Metroland. Judging by last year’s experience, this evening will be fun.