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Wednesday, May 20
Alan Price is reading up on old movies...
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 20 May 2009 02:32 PM BST
COLOUR MY MOVIE MISS NIAH FROM MARS
Settings, dialogue, characterisation and special effects are of a low order; but even their modest unreality has its charm. There is really no fault in this film that one would like to see eliminated. Everything, in its way, is quite perfect.
Monthly Film Bulletin Review (1954) of Devil Girl from Mars.
Perception 1
Colour my movie Miss Niah from Mars.
We offered tea. Bed for the night. A Scottish inn.
Yet earthling sex slaves were top of your list.
Men to breed women on the barren red planet.
Was that really my Devil Girl on DVD
indelibly bleached to a state of monochrome?
Colourise my celluloid dream.
Smear red your lips. Pink flesh your face.
Shine bright your emerald S & M gear,
cap, cowl, skirt and stiletto boots.
Let your Hoover shaped robot
be high tech silver out of control,
and your promiscuous ray gun
spurt a laser beam,
all feisty red
and cobalt blue.
Perception 2
B picture heather turns purple green.
Bewildered Scotsman evaporates on glen.
Whilst his smoking remains,
those rounded up NHS glasses,
reek of skin and mortal Technicolor.
Perception 3
Five years old.
My paint box was small.
Miss Niah commanded.
* Alan Price was born in Liverpool in 1949. Read English at Sussex University. He works in London as a library assistant. His film A Box of Swan (1990) was screened on BBC 2. From 2002-2007 three short films were made with Polish director Pawel Regdosz. Stories broadcast on Radio 3, then in his collection The Other Side of the Mirror (Citron Press 1998). Poems recently published in Poetry Monthly, Fickle Muses (USA) Finger Festival, Orbis and Decanto. Regular poetry readings given in North London. Presently working towards a collection of poetry.
Tuesday, May 19
Fiona Donaghey has a red suitcase and some stolen things
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 19 May 2009 04:11 PM BST
Stolen Things
Waiting in a wooden forest
where rain tips you here and there,
you read the trees like you might read books
and wonder: What right have text books
to worry me?
I hold my hands and kiss them
grateful for all the writing
with the wooden pencils in the wooden world
on wooden paper; now I realise I have stolen
everything from the trees
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Red Suitcase
As I drag the thing through the streets of Dublin
it tries to refrain from chaffing its redness
on the way to a painful pink.
I have packed my best dreams
for a good nights sleep
wrapped up in my warmest nightie.
I have packed the silk dress my mother gave me.
I have never worn it; maybe because
it is the most beautiful thing I have ever owned
and I can’t imagine how I would look
like something
with a face that isn’t lost.
I think I have remembered everything.
I think I have remembered
not to cry, but to laugh with my family
* Fiona Donaghey says "I am a student at City College Norwich studying English and Cultural Studies and I love poetry."
Monday, May 18
Roberta Swetlow's writing an octologue
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 18 May 2009 09:22 PM BST
Today we have a poem by Roberta Swetlow in a relatively new and novel form – an octologue. This was invented by Pat Gomes and consists of eight line stazas, with syllables arranged: 3,5,3,3,5,3,3,3 and with each line capped. For more information see the Octologue section on Pat's website www.patriciagomes.com/id7.html
Roberta says she wrote this after a (frustrating attempt to have a) conversation with her husband...
And So It Goes
“My great plan
Was just rejected.
I don’t know
What to do.”
“Could you ask him to –“
“I don’t know
What to do.
Do you know?”
“What about –”
“I thought it would work,
They said no.
I don’t know”
“Maybe you could try -”
“Can you think
Of something
I can do?”
* Roberta Swetlow finds inspiration and frustration in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, with her husband, adult children, and the Cat of the House
Sunday, May 17
Latest news round-up
by
Charles Christian
on Sun 17 May 2009 10:54 AM BST
Here's our latest round-up of contributor news...
* Regular IS&T contributor Sonia Jarema is running in next month's Race for Life (North London, 21st June)to raise money for Cancer Research. This will be her fifth year running. If you'd like to sponsor her, please
follow this link http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/sonjar
* Another contributor – Mike Montreuil – has a new haibun chapbook out. The title is Last Away Tournament. If people are interested in purchasing a copy, it is selling for $7.00 Canadian which includes shipping and postage. Email Mike for details at mikemontreuil@sympatico.ca
* Ed Baker – we published one of his haiga yesterday – has a new e-book out called Goodnight. You can download it free of charge from the web as a PDF file or you can buy a paper copy. Visit www.moriapoetry.com/ebooks.html
* Finally, this jut in from the Independent newspaper... Yoko Ono is to judge the world's first interactive poetry
competition, which starts in London tomorrow (Monday). Commuters arriving at the
capital's King's Cross station will be invited to submit haiku-style
poems on the subject of the British summer from their mobile phones,
using Twitter, the free social blogging site. The best
contributions will be moderated and appear within minutes on the
largest digital display board at King's Cross. Submissions will be
judged by Yoko Ono and leading Scottish poet, Jackie Kay. As well as
being displayed at the station, the poems will also be presented at
King's Place, the arts centre next to the station. "I liked the idea of doing something that
combined an old form with a very new form," said Jackie Kay. "People
could do a haiku on the way to work and it's a good way to exercise the
brain. It's like the sudoku," she added. Commuters have to tweet from their mobile phones using their existing Twitter accounts,
placing the prefix @kingsplace before their poem.
Saturday, May 16
New haiga by Ed Baker
by
Charles Christian
on Sat 16 May 2009 11:40 AM BST
 * Ed Baker's bio reads...
born 1941
here 2008
everything
in between
...boring!
Friday, May 15
Helen Pletts says there will come a time
by
Charles Christian
on Fri 15 May 2009 09:20 AM BST
And there will come a time
And there will come a time
when the sheets will ride up into one,
you and he, meeting again,
melting like rain,
taking a hand in a hand
and putting steps in a soil
too soft to remember you,
yet he is saying something
that you will never forget
but throw into the tempered air
as hot forged steel, and slice him
to the soft bone, in spite of love.
*
Helen Pletts is a regular IS&T contributor. She was born in the UK
but now lives in Prague in the Czech Republic, where she teaches
creative writing. Her latest collection can be bought via the IS&T chapbook shop.
Thursday, May 14
Two haiku by Simon Charlton
by
Charles Christian
on Thu 14 May 2009 09:42 PM BST
Dawn
Horizon blushes
An orange glow – darkness fades
Sun rising anew
Marie S.
Charcoal drawn opals
Wine-wrecked or tear-washed, your eyes
A world of sorrow
* Simon Charlton lives in Cheshire. He is employed as Carer/PA. (Maturely) educated at Closereach House in Plympton, Croydon College and Harris Manchester College, Oxford.
Wednesday, May 13
G W Colkitto is awake at 4:00 in the morning
by
Charles Christian
on Wed 13 May 2009 02:34 PM BST
IT IS FOUR IN THE MORNING
It is four in the morning again
I am awake
The darkness is closing
I had been dozing
Now it is four in the morning again.
I half remember dreams
Where you were alive
I want to return to them
But I have awoken, reality has spoken
It is four in the morning again
I could turn over
Pull duvet tight
Pretend a person is there
But the darkness is closing and far from dozing
It is four in the morning again
My heart will not settle
Should I put on the kettle
The comfort of hot tea and toast
I would rather lie restless and hope in the darkness
To see a faint shadow, a ghost
It is four in the morning again
* G W Colkitto says "I write prose and poetry. I have had short stories in the Ranfurly Review
and have published two poetry anthologies. I'm also a director of Read
Raw Ltd and we have a site through which we hope to promote creative
writing in Scotland." www.readrawltd.co.uk
Tuesday, May 12
Mike Estabrook's been on a blind date
by
Charles Christian
on Tue 12 May 2009 02:55 PM BST
Blind Date
"I've never been on a blind date," I state,
feeling a mixture of pride and sorrow.
"I haven't either," my wife responds immediately,
looking away from the TV screen.
I look at her to see if she is kidding.
But she isn't.
"Yes you have," I say. "You've been on a blind date."
A quizzical look crosses her face.
"In college, remember,
when you decided you needed to date other guys."
"Oh that. I forgot all about that."
"So you're one up on me," I continue,
"seeing as I've never been on a blind date
and you have." I guess it is pride I'm feeling.
I've never had to resort to a blind date
like my wife has.
"Yup, I'm one up on you, ha, ha," she kids me,
turning her attention back to the TV.
Of course I can't help but reflect
on how that blind date of hers, a date she dismisses
out of hand, that ha ha blind date of hers,
was actually the worst day of my entire life.
The day she sent me away
so she could spend the day with another guy,
the day I could have lost her,
the most beautiful woman I have ever known.
I guess the laugh's on her though,
because her stupid blind date was a fiasco
and she ended up stuck with me forever, poor thing.
* Mike Estabrook lives in New England and is a regular IS&T contributor.
Monday, May 11
Anne Brooke say's here come the sun...
by
Charles Christian
on Mon 11 May 2009 12:35 PM BST
Sun-dance
Rise when
it’s still dark
and wait
for the sun
to waltz
a shining path
from the east,
the faint stars
a silent orchestra,
and the disappearing moon
its hand partner
on a sky-blue floor.
* Anne Brooke hasn't seen the sun for a while but knows it's up there somewhere. When not searching, she can be found at www.annebrooke.com
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