Tongues & Grooves - Portsmouth - 25/10/2009

On a session dedicated to the theme of Exile, I read the poems

- The Magician
- Farewell in Heathrow
- From Exile
- Roadside

and deeply enjoyed the readings of Adnan al-Sayegh, Stephen Watts, Maria Jastrzębska, Vahni Capildeo and John Haynes.

This special edition of Tongues & Grooves was hosted by Richard Williams who produced a memorable evening.

Salisbury Poetry Cafe - 26/11/2009

I read the full sequence Definitions of Silence:
- 1 - Music
- 2 - Hand
- 3 - Box
- 4 - Bow
- 5 - Beat
- 6 - Violin

Salisbury Poetry Cafe - hosted by Grace Gauld
Every last Thursday of the month - 7:30
Salisbury Arts Centre
Bedwin Street
Salisbury
SP1 3UT

Memories from Limbo

There was a serpent in me
curling asleep at the bottom of a lake
and the lake was deep and cold,
dark, still water where nothing would live,
nothing would cross or touch
the large, motionless, sharp scales.

Now the serpent is awake outside,
feeding on lust, passion, and anger,
untamed, ungrateful, like the jinni,
to you for waking her up not knowing.
Me, I step back and watch in wonder
the joy of long forgotten emotions.

Nothing arises from my will,
just observing the strong tides come and go,
like bright fresh lava to new senses,
new uninvented words, sounds meaning more
than the letters used to raise them,
for you released what should never be kept.

Time will come to call the dragon
and the fierce birds of fire
to fight for me within my chest
where I keep safe, in secret drawers,
things never seen, never given,
never there to fill my days.

For dragons will be nothing but serpents
with the wisdom of open wings
and a ruthless breath that burns
deeper than the flames we raise and fear.
I shall summon him to come to my help,
for I can only be the struggle of the beasts.

Ye Olde Leathern Bottle - Alton - 24/11/2009

At the Ye Olde Leathern Bottle I read the poems:

- Falling
- Endymion
- The Magician
- Fuck Me An Angel
- Violin (from the sequence Definitions of Silence)
- Gravity Pull

Event hosted by Chris Sparks

for more details, see:
http://www.yeoldeleathernbottle.co.uk/HTML/poetry.html

Write Angle - Petersfield - 17/11/2009

I read the poems:

- The Magician
- Violin, from the sequence "Definitions of Silence"
- Fuck me an Angel

This time, the poems chosen were a response to requests made while chatting before the Apples & Snakes event of last month.

The Magician is one of two poems in English that I wrote originally in Portuguese and I enjoyed the experience of reading it in Portuguese before delivering its adaptation into English.

Write Angle - Hosted by Leah Cohen and Jake Claret
Every third Tuesday of the month
Address: Upstairs @ The Square Brewery
7 The Square
Petersfield
Hampshire
GU32 3HJ

Late Morning

Life came late, this morning before thunder,
just as the still faded call of spring
over slumbering bodies yet asleep.
The dark clouded morning is not seen,
as eyes open, still not knowing
which past and which role will they resume,
to which haunted place will they return.
Touching carries, then, the lightness of a whisper,
fingers drawing those tracks with no path
where we find ourselves secretly suspended,
ignoring where we are but not lost,
fearing the threats that will hold us to the ground
but not raising the defence of the arms.
We do not fall because we do not think
about the movements of walking, as we do,
when we meet and stare under the sun.
We do not turn back, as we are told,
not to see our emotions become statues of salt.
Life came with no fight nor surrender,
through open pores and nostrils,
stringent, and soft, and green,
taking the stretched fingers
as the warm summer wind may do
at certain hot dusks of wonder,
when we just sit and gaze
the hidden trail of the sun,
not thinking, not remembering, not whispering
how life may come and go.

Tall Lighthouse - London - 5/11/2009

I read the Tall Lighthouse poetry event at the Poetry Cafe:

- Summoning the Dead
- Excuses
- Lethe, the River

Tall Lighthouse at the Poetry Cafe - First Friday of each month
Hosted by John Citizen

22 Betterton St.
Covent Garden
London WC2H 9BX

What a Performance - Bath - 30/10/2009

At this special edition, a hommage to Moyra Caldecott was performed by some of her friends, who read Moyra's poems. As Moyra isn't now able to read her own poetry due to a stroke, this reading had a very strong emotional value that went far beyond the words that were read, like a deep sharing of the silence that lives at the roots of all true poetry.

I read Moyra's poem: "On listenning to a poet reading his own poem"

As well as my own poems:
- Penelope's welcome to Ulysses
- Moonshade

Event hosted by Richard Selby

Salisbury Poetry Cafe - 29/10/2009

I read the poems :

- The Blue Glow of the Night
- When Heroes Return Home
- From Exile

Salisbury Poetry Cafe - hosted by Grace Gauld
Every last Thursday of the month - 7:30
Salisbury Arts Centre
Bedwin Street
Salisbury
SP1 3UT