Serenity Study zine
30 Apr 2020 Category: zines
I turned my poem from NaPoWriMo Day 27 into a little zine.
Napwriomo 2020 Day 29- Fragment
29 Apr 2020 Category: poetry
Today my mind is like confetti thrown
to the wind, like a website with every
space filled with adverts, all flashing
for my attention, like a river delta
as hundreds of tributaries race towards
the ocean. Do you understand? It’s like
I’ve drunk ten espressos and all I can hear
is the thumping house beat of my heart or
like I am dust in the depths of the galaxy
not yet ready to coalesce into planets.
You must know what I mean. It’s like I’m
a beam of light...
Napowrimo Day 28 - Guilt
28 Apr 2020 Category: poetry
The sky is a confusion of clouds
whereas just yesterday you could
see the galaxy spin. We are out
of coffee once again, the internet
is often on the blink and helicopters
are swarming day and night in hives.
The oceans are swelling, drowning
small coastal towns. The years are
now dandelion seeds in a gale.
I blink. Ten more have flown away.
All of this feels like my fault
somehow. I offer my hands as
an apology. You close my fingers,
pass them back to me, a...
Napowrimo 2020 Day 27- Serenity Study
27 Apr 2020 Category: poetry
After Solmaz Sharif
Bare toes curling over grass before
the dew is done
Satellites describing ellipses
falling around Earth
Pain au chocolat, black coffee,
a notebook
Bristol harbour with no wind
a perfect mirror
Ohmmmmmmm the fridge chants
ohmmmmmmm
Prompt was from AmyKayPoetry to make concrete images out of abstract concepts, following on from Vulnerability Study by Solmaz Sharif
Napowrimo 2020 Day 26- We Are Mostly Empty
26 Apr 2020 Category: poetry
As we tumbled through the void,
everything was calm and peaceful
if you ignored the constant drone
of spycraft. The air was pink
electric and crackled with potential
There was something struggling
within it, something hidden, unseen.
It shimmered in the air, made of
nothing at all, blinking on and off,
a broken sunbeam. It had walked for years,
over burning deserts, stumbling over
broken glass and sharp shingle beaches.
Whispers and noises from other dimensions
combined, a palimpsest of imagined voices.
As I surrendered, my head filled with...
Napowrimo 2020 Day 25- Some Advice
25 Apr 2020 Category: poetry
I wouldn’t open that door if I were you.
Last year I stored the Atlantic ocean
behind it, stuffed it into every corner.
I only just managed to close the latch.
If opened, the room will fill with brine,
the house as well, the streets of this
sea-level town all submerged and we will
sink down to rest on the carpet below.
I probably wouldn’t open that door either.
for you will see a short corridor, leading
to another door, which leads to a short
corridor, leading to yet another...
Napowrimo Day 24 - Ripples
24 Apr 2020 Category: poetry
“It’s been a while,” the water whispers
as I enter, inch by inch,
“but what’s a few million years between
friends? I know why
you abandoned me for land. I forgive you”
Every part of my body
is held so tenderly as I submerge my head,
the cold slowing all
anxieties. I realise I have always been a wave,
never the same from
one moment to the next, always dissolving
into surf. I watch
my worries float away, turn into foam.
I kick forward,
make the first stroke...
Napowrimo 2020 Day 23- Erasing
23 Apr 2020 Category: poetry
“I know how this goes!” I say to no-one
as light starts to intensify, obliterating
all detail. Trees will become indistinct
shapes in the mist, never coalescing
into objects. The grass will flicker
with blue fire sparks, but that will
be the least of my problems. Walls,
so dependable and solid, will become
transparent as the hungry light feeds.
“Bring it on!” I will shout towards the
rapidly dissolving sky. “So predictable!
You’re not even trying!” I will scream
as the outline of my body transforms
into scattered...
Napowrimo 2020 Day 22- An Argument
22 Apr 2020 Category: poetry
The sky sulks.
Fresh insults rumble,
shadows hide,
small drops fall,
before the clouds start shouting
curses, throwing rain.
Prompt was to write a shadorma from Amy Kay Poetry, a form I wasn’t familiar with before but quite like.
Napowrimo 2020 Day 21- Confessions
21 Apr 2020 Category: poetry
I know they have secrets to spill,
given everything they’ve witnessed.
I’ve tried different approaches,
asking “How are you?” directly or
“Did you see the game last night?”
as an icebreaker. They never respond,
remain stubbornly shy. Perhaps
I have not found the right topic.
Some nights the floorboards creak
out curses as they shrink or expand.
At times, the computer sings softly
to itself, a single note to clarify
the air. I have heard these stories
too often, consider their secrets dull.
I know the walls understand...
Napowrimo day 20- Ritual
20 Apr 2020 Category: poetry
Thick mists and darkness linger. Crows try
listlessly to call the day into being, to
dissipate the vapour and somehow praise
the unknown. One plummets, arrow in the
fog, landing crooked. A fragile wing mutilated.
It cries, summoning the dawn, the golden world.
Prompt was to “make a golden shovel” from the Poetry in the Time of Being Alone group. I used a line from this poem for this one.
A Response From the Black Box
20 Apr 2020 Category: this was meant to be the future
One night last week, I thought I had a breakthrough. I was fiddling with a new set of code in the middle section of the input. I don’t work with the programme directly of course. It’s beyond us now. No-one has any idea what it’s doing. It’s meant to be running simulations to find a solution to the energy crisis but it doesn’t do anything.
It was one in the morning. Maybe two. Most of the time its just me and a screen. Sometimes the text dances, my head spins, the world becomes distant. I should probably stop when this...
Napowrimo 2020 Day 19- The Movement of Boulders
19 Apr 2020 Category: poetry
Given the kindness and cruelty of time,
a majority forgot those years where
the tilt of the earth increased. Only
a degree. Or more. Scientists spoke,
we didn’t listen, lost in our own panic,
sick with adrenaline. Maybe others
were able to convince themselves
by repetition: It wasn’t that bad. We
pulled together. It wasn’t that bad.
What they omit is the months of still
night, a numbness that never left,
the dread- this situation was static,
we had buried our normality with axes
under the ice floes...
Quarranzine
18 Apr 2020 Category: zines
Malaka Gharib shared how to create a little 8-page zine about the whole COVID 19 situation, so I joined in last week. It came out surprisingly sincere. It really helped clarify my reaction to the whole situation.
Napowrimo 2020 Day 18 - The Return
18 Apr 2020 Category: poetry
When I landed I felt the weight
of myself rush back into my body
like water through an open dam.
I was thankful for no longer
being a raindrop. I saw the sky
as an ocean we swim through daily.
When I landed I felt the spinning
of the planet under my shaking feet,
a constant treadmill, a dizziness.
I understood it was always this way.
When I landed I felt the breeze
stroke my skin and breathed in
all the blooms of the world.
For a second I...
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