The Poetry Round

To create a Dadaist poem

Sunday, April 15 2012 By coffee_girl | Poems

Required: newspaper, scissors, plastic bag, preferably a bottle of wine

Cut words out of a newspaper. Put them in a bag and shake it, then shake the words out, one at a time. The poem is created by the words in the order in which they come out.

Could stone away

you postcard you over

would what

to mean water be if

it dart

Olympic peace camp: making new meanings flare on British beaches

Tuesday, April 3 2012 By coffee_girl | Walls of Europe

I have to confess: I am not normally a fan of the love poem. While I can admire the careful cages of Shakespeare’s sonnets and chuckle at Donne’s thinly veiled illusions, my general feeling is that love poetry, of the flowers and pink icing variety, is hideously overdone. I agree with Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska that

'I owe so much

to those I do not love'

and, cynic and romantic at heart, hope for moonstruck friends that

'The time will come

when, with elation,

you will greet yourself arriving

at your own door, in your own mirror,

and each will smile at the other’s welcome.' (Love after love, Walcott)

Something, however, is beginning to make me change my mind. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to turn into a post of the cringingly self-confessional kind: my change of heart comes not from any personal revelation but rather from the launch of peace camp, an installation bringing love poetry to Britain’s beaches in time for the 2012 olympics.

Launched on 26 March, peace camp is the brainchild of actress Fiona Shaw and director Deborah Warner. From 19 to 22 July, tents will be erected on isolated beaches across the UK, from the Isle of Lewis, one of the northernmost points of Scotland, to Sussex in southeast England. Softly lit from within after dusk, the tents will be filled with the sound of love poetry, in dialects and languages (English, Welsh, Gaelic…) from across the country.

'So on a day when newcomers appear

Let it be a homecoming and let us speak

The unstrange word, as it behoves us here,

Move lips, move minds and make new meanings flare

Like ancient beacons signalling, peak to peak' (Beacons at Bealtaine, Heaney)

The peace camps are inspired by the traditional olympic truce which calls all nations to ‘lay down your arms, and let the games commence’. ‘We're engirdling our shores in a symbolic call for peace,’ said director Deborah Warner. ‘So much of the olympics is about competition; this is absolutely the antidote to that. In a way it's a complement to the struggle down in London.’ Indeed, while the olympics focus on a select sporting elite, peace camp is in its very nature inclusive, calling people to nominate poems, upload their own readings of love poetry and even submit their own poems at peacecamp2012.com.

If you happen to be in Britain in July, pack a blanket and a flask of hot chocolate, or your choice of restoring elixir (British beaches can be unforgiving), and go spend the evening at your nearest peace camp. You might discover Carol Ann Duffy’s valentine gift of an onion (It promises light / like the careful undressing of love) or Cristopher Marlowe’s ode to sex in the afternoon. Either way, hopefully, you will go away sensing that

'Words, words were truly alive on the tongue, in the head,

warm, beating, frantic, winged.' (Little Red-Cap, Duffy)

Ilaria La Commare’s poetry in movement

Saturday, March 28 2009 By Annarée | Poetry for today | 4 comments

This post is also available in: Spanish French Italian

A cafebabel.com correspondent since autumn 2005, Ilaria has left us at the age of thirty. It happened on 17 March in a blaze of desperation or courage, leaving her friends and family immersed in grief. Her life was full of activism, the latter being channelled predominantly through the medium of journalism. But Ilaria La Commare was not only a journalist. She was also an accomplished writer and a fine poet.

Back to business, with Matt

Monday, July 21 2008 By Jeremy | Poetry for today

Matt just wants to earn some cash. But he’s prepared to spread some good vibes in the process. Two videos and, like any visionary scheme worth its salt, a wonderfully simple concept, and it all works something like this: Matt dances his way round the world... and takes the party with him.

Glósóli: an optimism fix for Europe

Monday, June 11 2007 By Jeremy | Poetry for today

With epic aesthetics and minimalist sounds, Glósóli (“Glowing Sun”) comes from Iceland; a treat for the senses whose basis is a poem which, combined with video, adopts almost messianic overtones. It carries the signature of the group Sigur Rós (“Rose of Victory”) and despite its minor scales and apocalyptic setting, it is not outlandish to treat it as a call for optimism, an invitation to take risks in life. The figures in the video call for rejuvenation through absolute risk, it connects us with the energy of those who have everything in front of them: the young.

Ignition

Thursday, May 31 2007 By Jeremy | General | 2 comments

“Poetry is system of shining signals…” asserted the globe-trotter León Felipe. “The verse that came before mine is a torch which was carried in the hand of the previous poet as he searched for me, and the verse that follows me is a light that another is igniting in the dense shadows of the night, observing my signals.”