Freedom, is it?

Despite all these storms, spring is in the air (just about) and it’s helping me to feel a bit more positive and creative. The truly awful behaviour of this government doesn’t help, though. This poem is to ‘celebrate’ Thursday. I’m glad that Boris feels proud of releasing us from all restrictions, including the sensible ones that were protecting public health. I’m sure the timing had nothing to do with his own parliamentary difficulties and the need to keep his lunatic backbenchers on side. So, off we go, into the unknown, where only the rich can afford to test and isolate, and everyone else is left to wander around infecting others. What could possibly go wrong?

The Joy of Shameless Self-Promotion

A short poem about marketing myself, January 2022

In 2022 I have decided to pour myself into Lateral G, performing, producing and publicising my work more effectively. I’m back at full focus, writing all the time, and there’s a huge backlog of work sat waiting for release. But still I can’t help writing about whatever is happening to me right now, and as part of the great promotion, I’ve been learning about marketing and all that nonsense, so I had to do a poem about that too.

Behind Those Walls

(1)

https://www.bmj.com/content/358/bmj.j3885

(2)

https://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/update-on-coronavirus-fpns-issued-by-police

(3)

https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1669/rapid-responses

I’d like to credit Rosa Poet with the excellent idea of referencing in poetry!

If you like my political poetry, go and check hers out – link below.

https://instagram.com/poetrosapoetry?utm_medium=copy_link

MRI Review – Two Stars

Here is a new experiment in poetry and sound – something I’ve been wanting to try out for a while myself, but have managed to do even better, and get a collaboration going with someone who really knows what they are doing. Luckily, the artist formerly known as Boris Donkson (but soon to assume a new electro-acoustic alias) was fairly keen. Have a listen, preferably in stereo for the full effect, and let me know what you think in the comments.

I’m looking forward to doing more poetry with soundscapes, first for Boris Donkson’s degree project, where I will have less control of the poetry – and then maybe some more of my poems. I am excited by this: it is how I imagined it might sound!

Do you think video as well would be too much?

Kill the Bill!

Got my placard and the dog’s harness ready to go and protest the police and crime bill tomorrow.

The bill goes through the Lords on Monday. If it passes with all the amendments, it will make all effective protest illegal, including carrying materials for protest like these in the picture. Or if the police suspect you might be going to protest – which means thought crimes, really. What sort of a police state would that make us?

It will also criminalise the way I live, as part of the most horrendously prejudiced new anti-gypsy and traveller laws we have seen for hundreds of years in this country, giving the police powers to destroy my home, imprison me for three months and banish me from returning to any area for a year – just for residing in a vehicle on the roadside.

It says ‘Cheese & wine?’ on the other side of the dog’s harness…

Another Strange Year

This was an attempt at some sort of collaboration. I asked people on social media to contribute things that I could include in my end of the year poem. I thought I’d write a poem that juxtaposed my insular year of death and grief with other people’s stuff, but that isn’t what happened at all! I did use all of the ideas I was given, but it still came out as an incredibly personal account of my 2021. It was nice to mark it all as an event, and call it over, finally finished. Now I can look forward to 2022, a year I intend devote to poetry.

31st December 2021