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First Published: September 24: 2015
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London Poetry Festival

VII London Poetry Festival 2019: October 14-15: Venue to Be Confirmed Soon

VIII London Poetry Festival 2020: October 14-15: The Finnish Church in London: 33 Albion Street: London SE16 7HZ
 

 
VII London Poetry Festival 2019: October 14-15: St Matthews at Elephant and Castle: 19:30-22:00
 

Download The Festivals Poster

 

 

 

|| October 08: 2018 || ά. The VII London Poetry Festival 2019 will be taking place on Sunday-Monday, October 14-15, 19:30-22:00 at St Matthews at Elephant and Castle, Meadow Row, Off New Kent Road, London SE1 6RG. Two evenings will celebrate and present poetry and music and feature the VII Festival Artist in Residence Dr Ramya Mohan with all her artistic works, including, a musical performance and an art exhibition of her paintings. Along with Dr Mohan the VI Festival Artist is Residence Ms Kerry-Fleur Schleifer, who, in addition to being a painter and artist, a poet, singer and musician, will perform her music and poetry as well.

The Festival is, as is The Humanion, part of Regine Humanics Foundation Ltd, which is a human enterprise, registered as a not for profit social enterprise and tickets of the Festival are FREE to the public; however, a voluntary donation is asked for to support the works of The Foundation. Tickets must be booked as seats are limited. Tickets can be booked through the Festival Eventbrite Page. Tickets can be booked at Regine Humanics Foundation Ltd as well.

The Festival is a celebration of poetry and music and the humanity out of which all arts, crafts, painting, music and poetry arise. Everyone is invited to join in the celebrations. Poets and musicians, bands and groups, who would like to take part are invited to contact us. Places are allocated for reading or any other performance on a first come first given basis. The Festival is a celebration of our humanity, our common connections and bonds and human fellowship in reality, in real community and in real society. You are welcome to join the Festival and meet others and you connect and share and take forward the present into the future.

The Festival Team looks forward to welcoming you all at the VII Festival on Mid-October in 2019.

Download The Festival Flyer

Download The Festival Poster

Tell Everyone and Book Your FREE Tickets Regine Humanics Foundation Ltd:::ω.

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Dr Ramya Mohan: The Artist in Residence at the VII London Poetry Festival 2019: October 14-15
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

|| October 09: 2018 || ά. The VII London Festival 2019 is taking place on October 14-15, Monday and Tuesday evenings, 19:30-22:00 in London. Dr Ramya Mohan is a board-certified Senior Developmental Consultant Psychiatrist in Children, Adolescents and Families, MBBS, MRCPsych, CCST, a Medical Educator, Music Composer, Singer-Songwriter, Performing Musician, exhibiting Artist, Author, Public Speaker and Humanitarian, working across India and the UK. She is well-­known for her work in amalgamating the Creative Arts with Neuroscience for youth and societal development. She is the Founder and Head and Medical Director of iMANAS London. Dr Mohan is the Artist in Residence at the VII London Poetry Festival 2018 at which the Festival will feature all her artistic and musical creativities, including, an exhibition of her artworks. As a musician, singer, song-writer, poet and artist she will surely add her voice and presentations to enrich the Festival.

After her Medical degree, MBBS, from her hometown Bengaluru or Bangalore Medical College in India, Dr Mohan moved to the UK and completed her training in General Psychiatry at the South London and the Maudsley NHS Hospitals Trust, a premier institute for mental health globally. She was one of the youngest doctors to complete the MRCPsych in the UK, arguably the most difficult medical post-graduate exam in the UK. After becoming a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, she completed her sub-specialisation in Developmental Psychiatry, Psychiatry of children, adolescents, young people and families at the world-renowned Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, London, UK. Dr Mohan has been a Senior Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist on the National Health Service, UK since 2008. She is the Medical Director and Head of i-MANAS London since 2015 and a Visiting Senior Consultant to healthcare clinics in India since 2017. She says that she is constantly dealing with new challenges on a daily basis, requiring ongoing re­appraisal and personal development. She has been awarded a Clinical Certificate in Psychopharmacology by the British Association of Psychopharmacology. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr Ramya Mohan has been a Senior Educational and Clinical Supervisor and Educator on the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Deanery between 2012 and 2016. She has trained innumerable Medical students and post-graduates in Psychiatry, Paediatrics and Accident and Emergency from various training schemes in the region, including, Southwest:St George’s and Southampton Medical schools, UK on clinical and communication skills. She is visiting member of the Faculty for the MA in Psychotherapy course for the Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy Education:CCPE, London, UK. Dr Mohan is a regular leading expert contributor with health, medical and parenting publications on Child Psychology and Psychiatry. She has been published in well-regarded peer-­reviewed journals and presented at international conferences on mental health, including, the Royal College of Psychiatrists International conference, UK and the International Schizophrenia Congress, USA. Her topic ‘The role of music and non-­musical techniques in self-guided emotional regulation’ was commended as ‘innovative, original, ground-breaking and much needed’ at the International European Psychiatric Association Congress, Spain. 

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A Beautiful Begin-Again: The London Poetry Festival Begins Again at the Sixth: October 14-15
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Humanion 2017 Festival Editions

The Humanion Year Gamma Q-Delta: Week Beta: The VI London Poetry Festival 2017: October 14-15 Edition: October 13

The Humanion Year Gamma Q-Delta: Week Beta: The VI Festival Edition: The VI London Poetry Festival 2017: October 14-15 Edition

 

Kerry Schleifer: The VI London Poetry Festival 2017 Artist in Residence at the Festival

 

Music Kerry Schleifer Singing at the VI London Poetry Festival 2017

 

 

A Beautiful Begin-Again: The London Poetry Festival Begins Again at the Sixth: October 14-15

 

|| October 16: 2017 || ά. ''At the outcome of all these harrowing insights: let my jubilant praise be in tune with the angels: let none of the clear-struck keys of my heart: fail on a wavering, slack or snapping spring: Let the tears streaming down my face: make me more radiant; let the invisible tears: blossom. How precious you'll be to me, Nights: in my grief. Why didn't I greet you by kneeling lower: disconsolate sisters, loose myself more: in your loosened hair: we waste our sorrows: We look beyond them into the sadness of time: to see if they end. But they are really: our winter foliage, our dark evergreen: one of our secret seasons-no more than that: they are place, plot, hearth, earth home.''

The VI London Poetry Festival 2017 has resumed the London Poetry Festival, the last one was held, the fifth, in 2009. It is a beautiful new beginning. Earnest, intimate, open, warm and connected, flourishing with words, colours and music. Remembering and Paying respect to the souls, who perished and those, who have suffered, survived and have been struggling to heal and rebuild their lives, in the Grenfell Tower Fire, the VI London Poetry Festival 2017, begun again, being a platform for celebrations of poetry, music and art at the beautiful St John's Church in Notting Hill on Saturday, October 14 in the the evening. Two evenings, Saturday and Sunday, October 14-15, were simply a joyful occasion, that everyone, who joined in will remember: the word, the sound, the colour, the light, the joy in the candle light. Lit is the word of light.

Having communicated through reality without geographical proximity The Humanion and London Poetry Festival Team, Kerry Schleifer, Sharon Whitmarsh, Dilu Naser and Munayem Mayenin arrived early and met in one reality to welcome guests, after a long time. The Festival has organised an art exhibition of the art work by Kerry Schleifer, who has been the Artist in Residence at this Festival. The evening begun with Kerry's opening musical performance, that transported the audience in full darkness other than some candle light flickering into a magical world, particularly, her use of the Ocarina.

Munayem Mayenin, the Festival Director and the Editor of The Humanion welcomed everyone and made a brief statement regarding the Festival resuming and announced that the Festival would, from now on, be held in every October, from 14-17. Then poetry reading begun. Reading in the first evening were Richard Deakin, Sharon Whitmarsh, Dilu Naser and Kerry Schleifer.

After the poetry readings, Kerry Schleifer and Jeff took over with music and the audience had a wonderful time as they both gave a rapturous performance. At the end, Kerry and the audience created an improvised song, based on some words, given from the members of the audience: words were lasgne, light, soul food and some other. And the opening evening concluded with that soul food, rendered by Kerry Schleifer.

The final evening began with the Art Exhibition, being experienced by the audience members as they arrived and mingled around. Again the evening begun with Kerry's opening musical performance with Paul Cowles from the darkness in candlelight. Then followed poetry. Readers were Jag Reaves, Sharon Whitmarsh, Kerry Schleifer, Dilu Naser and some other young poets, whose names we shall have to confirm. Then, once again, Kerry Schleifer and Paul Cowles took the stage with their dual musical session, that transpired the audience to a world of improvisational musical art.

Then, once again, Kerry involved the audience and they offered her words like chicken, Jelly Fish, miracle and Paris being a state of mind with which she has come up with a stunning song and performance. And then she sang an impromptu poem said out to her, which she then sung, each line as she was given one after another. Matters rising on ideas' boats to Eiffel Heights.......Hold my hand and look out to the valley of the night....The audience has been thoroughly won over by Kerry with her out of the world performance.

Munayem Mayenin thanked every one for joining the Festival and invited everyone to join at the Next Festival. He thanked the Church and The Humanion and the Festival Team members, including, Kerry Schleifer, Sharon Whitmarsh and Dilu Naser, as well as, Dr J Everet Green and Jay Green, in New York for all their support, even if they were not physically present at the Festival, and the Festival friend Richard Deakin, who has been part of the two evenings. The Festival thanked everyone, who was not at the Church, but who have always supported the Festival.

Here are only a few images. More to be edited and posted soon.

It was a beautiful resumption of the London Poetry Festival and everyone, who joined us enjoyed being part of the Humanity, that has gathered at this beautiful Church for two evenings. Therefore, next year, next Festival, the seventh: 2018: Ocotber 14-17.

Kerry Schleier: Self Portrait at The Festival
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Kerry Schleifer Art at the VI London Poetry Festival 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
More Soon

|| October 16: 2017 || ά. Well, here is the news of The VII London Poetry Festival 2018: October 14-17. The VII Festival will offer five new and emerging poets Residencies, for which interested are welcome to apply. Details are on the Festival page. The idea is to offer the platform to these five poets and publish and promote their works throughout the year building up to and beyond the Festival. So apply early. And as we have started this year, The Festival Artist in Residence Programme, the Inaugural Resident being Kerry Schleifer this year, we have offered Residency of being The Festival Artist in Residence of The VII Festival to Dr Ramya Mohan. Dr Ramya Mohan is many an expression of a mind: of a human being, of a woman, of a mother, of a psychiatrist, of singer, of an artist, who is seeking to become, seeking to create, seeking to make sense and heal, as well as, to locate and sing the light, that feeds the wonders of this life on this Universe, which feels so much easily 'fathomable', yet it keeps on escaping all our efforts and initiatives while it keeps us absolutely spell-bound to its majesty, mystery and magnificence.

One simply cannot put up a jacket and just say to oneself, well, let me make it a 'snail-life-shell-for-life'. We have used a line from one of Rabindranath Tagore's poems: where the mind is without fear in the title of this Profile. Once a human mind reaches that light and realises its infinite potential, that is continually fed by the 'particles' and 'mini-particles' of lights of wisdom, that one keeps on gathering because one keeps on asking and seeking, that mind reaches the shore of liberty, where it is, for the first time, at absolute liberty: fear does not exist for that mind anymore for that mind has found itself at home in the Universe. And that mind is the one that a great mind seeks to become and from that they offer their luminous light to the world. Dr Ramya Mohan is on the track of that journey of becoming such a mind. And The Humanion and the London Poetry Festival present her with this hope, with this faith and with this conviction that she will continue on that path, on that journey with carrying both the earth of her sciences and the skies of her arts and combine them onto the 'sphere', that she makes of with her imagination, with her ingenuity, with her creativity, with her rationality, with her arts and with her humanity and let the world and humanity become richer for her, for her works, for her sciences, for her arts and for her being an artist. Let there be nothing but that, which speaks the truth, that which sings beauty and which does nothing to harm but seeks all to heal, enlighten and support. May she continue to 'sing' and continue to be the person, that she is: a mind without fear. And we hope throughout this Residency she will find inspirations and seek to create that what she is and she is seeking to become. Readmore

The Festival Team

Claire Askew
Festival Development Director
Sharon Harriott
Festival Public Relations Director
Kerry Schleifer
Arts Editor: The Humanion
Dilu Naser
Community Poetry Lead and Assistant Editor: The Humanion
Dr J Everet Green
Chief Deputy Editor: The Humanion
Munayem Mayenin
Festival Director and Editor: The Humanion
 

Festival Contact: editor at thehumanion dot com

The London Poetry Festival

 

 

The London Poetry Festival grew out of Poets' Letter Magazine Poetry Performance and Live Music Series that started in March 2005 at the Poetry Cafe, Covent Garden, one year after the founding of Poets' Letter. The Performance Series went on for a few year. We had the first Festival at The Poetry Cafe in August 2005 where many of our panel of poets took part as well as a lot of other poets published in the Magazine and Poets' Letter Poetry Anthology of New Voices. We had a great memorable event.

We thought this could become a regular Annual Poetry Festival in London, a celebration of Contemporary English Poetry. And there was the second Festival in 2006 at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art:RADA, which was a resounding success. The third Festival in 2007 involved lot more poets and poetry lovers. 2nd London Poetry Festival was featured in British Satellite News Channel in 2006.

From the second Festival we developed Festival Poets in Residence Programme as part of London Poetry Festival's commitments to new, young and emerging poetic voices and offered five poets the Residencies who became the Signature presentation of the Festival. The Residencies of the 2nd Festival went to these talented poets: Alan Buckley, Dr Girija Emma Jane Shettar, Luke Wright, Malgorzata Kitowski and Philip Ruthen.

3rd Festival Residencies were given to Briony Dennis, Inua Ellams, Juli Jeana, Tom Chivers and Tricia Peak.

4th Festival Poets in Residence are : Anjan Saha, Claire Askew, Catherine Brogan, Helen Long, Nnorom Azuonye and Sharon Harriott.

5th Festival Poets in Residence are: Aiko Harman, Bryan Oliver, Christian Ward, Rebecca Atherton and Tony Fernandez

London Poetry Festival has never received, nor does it receive now, any funding from any public bodies or grant making foundations and is purely funded by Poets' Letter and the hard works, supports and contributions of the astonishing band of people: editors, poets, writers, singers, musicians, song writers, artists, PR professionals, journalists, dancers, librarians, youth workers, teachers, parents and simply people who are into living in a community that is bigger than themselves.

London Poetry Festival is here and will continue to be here in its efforts to ensure that we make a lot of poetry and music out of our living to say, show, sing and celebrate the fact that we are humans and are alive and thriving in the rainbow-humanity. This is an open invite to everyone to join us in the celebration.


A Message from Jim Fitzpatrick MP 
Former Minister for London, 2007

I am delighted to have been invited to join the four-day festivities of the 3rd London Poetry Festival 2007 this August to celebrate contemporary English as well as European Poetry and music.

London is a vibrant and youthful world city with a cosmopolitan and diverse rhythm, living and life style where arts and culture create worldwide resonance and reach and therefore it is reasonable to expect that it should have a Poetry Festival of its own to showcase the talents in the crafts of poetic art and performance poetry and London Poetry Festival rightly fits the bill whereby we have opportunities to come together and celebrate not only English poetry and music but also the great city London and its diverse culture, arts and offerings.

I am glad to see that a lot of European poets are taking part in this year's festivities and hope that London Poetry Festival brings the European poetry and culture to a celebratory platform in London as it continues to thrive.

I wish the festival every success and invite everyone in the relevant fields of arts to support and join in the Festival.

I look forward to seeing everyone at the opening of the Festival on 10th of August Celebrating London


Jim Fitzpatrick MP


Partners of London Poetry Festival in Europe

These relationships with Universities of Europe started when professors of English, Poetry, Literature or Creative Writing courses at many European Universities started writing to Poets' Letter and London Poetry Festival.

First of such contact came from Dr Maria Grech Ganado, Malta and English Professor in Malta, followed by Dr Barbara Schaff at University of Munchen, Germany, who brought her whole English Poetry class to join the 2nd London Poetry Festival in 2006. Her group added an extra sense, vibration, life and dimension to the Festival atmosphere and everyone was thrilled to have them at the Festival.

Then came the contact from Dr Natalia Carbajosa that developed into a very powerful collaboration and friendship through which University of Cartagena and its English Department became a big supporter of London Poetry Festival. 

We have other connections and relationships that are still developing, not just with European Universities but other world universities from Dr Rati Saxena, India, Dr J Everet Green, The New School University, New York, America, Dr Sally-Anne Murray, University of Kwa-Zulu Nutal, Durban, South Africa and the list goes on.

We would love to develop a creative and developing link and relationship with all the English Departments of all the European Universities and the universities of the whole world. And here is our open invitation to all Heads of Departments of all English Departments: let us bring the world together, closer: creating and sharing together.

These links and relationships not only enhance and enrich us as human beings but also, at the time, bring astonishing togetherness and vibrancy by way of cross lingual translations of creative works.

Dr Natalia Carbajosa's Spanish translations of English Poetry into Spanish and English translations of Spanish Poetry could be a shining example of such wonderful works. Through her dedication, commitment and love of poetry and the wonderful support of her Head of English Department Dr Tomás López Maestre at University of Cartagena, meant that we have now three major contemporary Spanish Poets, Tomas Sanchez Santiago, Mila Ramos and Gracia Iglesias, translated and published in English and consequently, some of these poets and their translator joined the 3rd Festival in 2007 in London.

So here we are: open and warm invites to all the professors and translators at European Universities and other World Universities to join us in bringing us all together in this resonating oneness of our common humanity.

We highly appreciate and welcome all the support of our Partners in Europe
University of Cartagena

'It is an honour for the University of Cartagena to support the London Poetry Festival in the person of one of its professors, Dr Natalia Carbajosa.'

Dr. Tomás López Maestre
Head, Department of English
University of Cartagena
Spain

London Poetry Festival in Other Cities of the World

We were speaking with other poets, particularly, in Europe to get world cities organising Poetry Festivals together in which part of the London Poetry Festival is held in a particular European/World city which then comes to London Poetry Festival in London whereby increasing the opportunities for poetic and creative interchanges among all poets and creative people writing in Europe and the World.

In this we spoke with many poets including poets in Mongolia, Spain, Malta, America, Jordan, Finland, Belgium, Germany, India and more. 
We were communicating with a fellow Finnish poet, Jenni Haukio about this idea who was very positive and enthusiastic about such collaboration between poets and poetry of two cities. We left off, years ago, with the hope that we would keep thinking about it till we come back to it in the future. 
Well, that was a long time ago when Jenni Haukio was 'just a poet'! Because since than she became The First Lady of Finland as she had married the President of Finland, Honourable Sauli Väinämö Niinistö, who had survived The 2004 Tsunami! We wish all the best to both our Poet friend and The President. We hope Haukio still is a poet and is still writing.

So, here, we leave this thread open to all our friends out there in the world, particularly, for all the friends who wrote in and for, and were involved with Poets' Letter, Poets' Letter Performance Series and London Poetry Festival to get involved.

All queries regarding The VI London Poetry Festival 2016 should be sent to editor at thehumanion dot com with Subject Line: LPF 2017.
 
Off the Pages of History

VI London Poetry Festival 2016: October 14-17 

Because of the fact that it is like 'begin again' for London Poetry Festival, after a few years' break and to coincide The Candle Won't Blow Out Celebration of Williams Shakespeare 2016, which will continue the celebration throughout October and to take the Festival to its Spiritual Home in the Mid-Autumn-Month, in which we celebrate the National Poetry Day and the whole month as the Poetry Month, VI London Poetry Festival 2016 will take place, as usual, in an extended four-day weekend: in October 14-17 and then onwards, the Festival will always be held Annually on the same dates regardless of what days these dates fall. Therefore, poets, singers, musicians and poetry loving minds, get ready to celebrate poetry and music in which humanity finds its most awe-inspiring expressions.

July 04: 2016
The Festival Team

Apply for Poets in Residence Programme at the VI London Poetry Festival 2016: UK Poets Writing in English

As before, the VI London Poetry Festival 2016 will offer five Residencies to 'promising' poetic voices regardless of their 'age' or background. No history or list of publications or reading experience is required to be considered for the Residency. To be considered for the Residencies, please, send in five poems, not too long, in brief write a few words about yourself, add your contact details and send them to editor at thehumanion dot com.

If you are offered a Residency you shall be available for the duration of the Festival in August for four evenings so to be able to participate in the Festival Programmes and be prepared to Read as part of the Festival's Signature Presentation by the Five Resident Poets. If you are offered a Residency it shall be offered PURELY and ABSOLUTELY on the basis of the FIVE POEMS you submit and on nothing else. It does not matter where you have been published or whether you have not been published at all.

If you are offered a Residency and you have had no experience of reading you will be given ample support, guidance and coaching. 'Age': Poets must be 18 or over but what we mean by 'age' is that if someone is twenty and someone is seventy five this does not make a difference as to who gets the residency: it is purely the merits of the works submitted that shall determine who is offered the Residency. The Residencies will be offered on a First Come First Serve basis which means as and when the 5th Residency is given the Programme shall close for this Festival. 
Applications are open for UK poets writing in English

The Residency does not offer any financial reward other than the Festival will promote your works, you will be part of the Festival and form the Festival's Signature Presentation Reading in the four evening programmes, your works will be published in the Festival website and The Humanion throughout the year which you would work on as part of the Residency Programme and you will have a page on the Festival Website which shall be up so long the Festival is alive!

The Structure of VI London Poetry Festival 2016

Each Evening with Three Strands
Each Evening There will be Three Strands

Strand One: The Candle Won't Blow Out Celebration of William Shakespeare 2016

Strand Two: Poets in Residence Signature Presentation

Strand Three: General Celebration of Poetry

Apart from that there would be two other events on two evenings added to the Three Strands

Open Mic: There would be a slot for Open Mic for poets, young and old, who are starting out in poetry and poetry reading, to read. To be considered, please, send in three poems, your contact details to editor at thehumanion dot com

Poets Across Europe

Whereby we are hoping our friend and fellow poets from all of Europe might join us if they can coincide their travels to be in London around the Festival time. The Festival does not have any financial support that can be offered. 
To Read at the Festival poets are invited to send in English Translation of three of their poems, a biography and a list of their publications with the publishers' details and their own contact details. Please, send this to editor at thehumanion dot com. To be able to read at the Festival poets have to be published.

World Poetry: Poetry Without Borders

Here the entire world poets are welcome to join in and read and take part in our festivities. Here, we are hoping poets who are planning to visit London around the Festival time to coincide their plans so that they can join the Festival. Along with that there are many poets who live in the UK from all over the world and who write in their own languages. They are welcome to join in this session. It would be expected that poets, who will be reading poetry in languages other than English, would be able to provide written English translations of the works to be read so that the audience have a better enjoyment of their works. The Festival does not have any financial support that can be offered. 
To Read at the Festival poets are invited to send in English Translation of three of their poems, a biography and a list of their publications with the publishers' details and their own contact details. Please, send this to editor at thehumanion dot com. To be able to read at the Festival poets have to be published.

This year's Festival is, for the First time, FREE of tickets. There would, however, be a voluntary contribution collection for the very necessary expenses including venue hire charges, some assistance for the poets who would appreciate some support towards travelling expenses. This would only apply to UK poets. However, those who are wishing to attend should book their place by sending an email with details of people intending to attend in order to get their 'FREE' Tickets.

Therefore, nothing can stop you to join in the celebration of the VI London Poetry Festival 2016

The London Poetry Festival Team

June 01: 2016

 

Please Book Your Free Tickets as They are Going Fast: London Poetry Festival Update: Some Confirmed Poets Singers and Musicians

|| October 05: 2017 || ά. We are fast approaching The VI London Poetry Festival 2017: October 14-15. The Festival tickets, though Free, must be booked. Please, book your free tickets as soon as you can as people are booking tickets and you do not want to arrive to see there's no space because there are limited number of seats available. Tickets are booked through The Festival Eventbrite Page. In the meanwhile, we have some confirmed names, who are joining the Festival, reading, performing, singing and exhibiting art work.

Kerry Schleifer: The Artist in Residence at The VI London Poetry Festival 2017
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here we have Richard Deakin, Sharon Harriott, Kerry Schleifer and Dilu Naser, who are going to join the Festival and read, perform and sing. We are waiting for further confirmations from other friends, colleagues and fellow poets, singers, artists, musicians and performers and will update you as we get the final words. The two evenings will have the following structure: Open Session from 19:00-19:30: When people are welcome to look at and experience the Art Exhibition while there will be open music session going on. The Reading Session will begin at 19:30: Musical Opening followed by reading until 21:00. Then there will be a break for twenty minutes. The Second Session will start at 21:20 and will run until 22:20 and then the Final Music Session will conclude the evening. Open Mike readers will read in between other readers and performers. ω.

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The VI London Poetry Festival 2017: October 14-15: London Notting Hill St John's Church: Lansdowne Crescent: London W11 2NN: Nearest Tubes: Holland Park:01: Ladbroke Grove:02: Notting Hill Gate:03: Bus: 228:00: Right Outside the Church: Contact: editor at thehumanion.com: Please, Book Your Tickets: They are FREE But Must Be Booked Through The Festival Eventbrite Page

 

 

VI London Poetry Festival 2017: October 14-15: Updates: Kerry Schleifer is the First Artist in Residence at the VI Festival and Will Exhibit Her Work at an Art Exhibition During the Festival
 

Let there be surging seas of weaving coral lights
Let there be flights of light-lifting choral songs
And sun-sure-rise of larks of sublime joys to seize
Let us meet and greet sit and read as all hearts
Blend in and mend on and mind our dreams

October 14-15: Sat-Sun: 19:00-23:00

|| October 01: 2017 || ά. Since we are having the Festival at a beautiful church, with lot of wonderful space, we decided to use that, in parallel and in complement to our poetry and music celebrations and organise an art exhibition during the festival's two days. And, therefore, Kerry Schleifer is the First Artist in Residence at the Festival. She is The Humanion's Arts Editor, who has been involved with the Festival and the Poets' Letter for many years. She is many things as talents go: a poet, an artist, a singer, a song-writer and, most distinctly, of her own signature-print, Kerryprovisation, the spontaneous, beautiful improvised music she does, improvising as she goes. But out of all these areas of creativity, may be, fine art is her forte. She is an artist, a painter and has done that all her life. This Kerryprovisation Art Exhibition will present a selection of her arts works, paintings, drawings, designs, collages, illustrations and so on. Everyone, who is coming to the festival, is invited to come in time so that they are able to experience the Exhibition.

Well, Kerry Schleifer, Sharon Harriott, Dilu Naser and The Humanion Editor, can not help but be there. Aand they will be there. Kerry will read, sing and present her art exhibition and do other things. Sharon will read, Dilu will read as well. Some of the Festival's core poets-friends-colleagues-readers are very much hoped to attend, as they try to seek and search their diaries to see how and whether they are able to attend and read. These poet-friends include, this does not mean that they are going to read but very likely to be doing so, Richard Deakin, Philip Ruthen, Maggie Sullivan, Bryan Oliver, Laura Bartholomew. We will update you as soon as they confirm. Our invite is open to everyone and we repeat the call for everyone to get involved. Where are the volunteers? Please, join and help us run a beautiful Festival. And, please, book your Free tickets on The Festival Eventbrite Page.

Kerry Schleifer Art Exhibition

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Kerry Schleifer in Her Own Words: I was born and raised in London. From the start I was the dancing singing acrobatic entertainer when the moon shone and the introverted mystery when it didn't. I have always painted and made drawings until I joined Parsons School for Design in NYC, when my head consumed too many questions and my brush was paralysed. I then found wings of inspiration in the open mics around town and began to give myself to the public through pure emotive improvisation. 

This all developed for a while whilst I studied holistic energy body treatments and life coaching and did a whole lot of personal development courses. But I found, I never really sank into any home any work world or psychological habitat. The ethereal world fits me best but I treasure earthly matter and fascinated by its bridge from energy to solid. A funny world it is with lots of invisible gases all speaking our name. I, may, even change mine! ω.

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|| October 01: 2017 || ά. Well, here is the news of The VII London Poetry Festival 2018: October 14-17. The VII Festival will offer five new and emerging poets Residencies, for which interested are welcome to apply. Details are on the Festival page. The idea is to offer the platform to these five poets and publish and promote their works throughout the year building up to and beyond the Festival. So apply early. And as we have started this year, The Festival Artist in Residence Programme, the Inaugural Resident being Kerry Schleifer this year, we have offered Residency of being The Festival Artist in Residence of The VII Festival to Dr Ramya Mohan. Dr Ramya Mohan is many an expression of a mind: of a human being, of a woman, of a mother, of a psychiatrist, of singer, of an artist, who is seeking to become, seeking to create, seeking to make sense and heal, as well as, to locate and sing the light, that feeds the wonders of this life on this Universe, which feels so much easily 'fathomable', yet it keeps on escaping all our efforts and initiatives while it keeps us absolutely spell-bound to its majesty, mystery and magnificence.

One simply cannot put up a jacket and just say to oneself, well, let me make it a 'snail-life-shell-for-life'. We have used a line from one of Rabindranath Tagore's poems: where the mind is without fear in the title of this Profile. Once a human mind reaches that light and realises its infinite potential, that is continually fed by the 'particles' and 'mini-particles' of lights of wisdom, that one keeps on gathering because one keeps on asking and seeking, that mind reaches the shore of liberty, where it is, for the first time, at absolute liberty: fear does not exist for that mind anymore for that mind has found itself at home in the Universe. And that mind is the one that a great mind seeks to become and from that they offer their luminous light to the world. Dr Ramya Mohan is on the track of that journey of becoming such a mind. And The Humanion and the London Poetry Festival present her with this hope, with this faith and with this conviction that she will continue on that path, on that journey with carrying both the earth of her sciences and the skies of her arts and combine them onto the 'sphere', that she makes of with her imagination, with her ingenuity, with her creativity, with her rationality, with her arts and with her humanity and let the world and humanity become richer for her, for her works, for her sciences, for her arts and for her being an artist. Let there be nothing but that, which speaks the truth, that which sings beauty and which does nothing to harm but seeks all to heal, enlighten and support. May she continue to 'sing' and continue to be the person, that she is: a mind without fear. And we hope throughout this Residency she will find inspirations and seek to create that what she is and she is seeking to become. Readmore

 

Poets Musicians Bands Orchestras: Join in: Get in Touch If You Would Like to Take Part in the Festival

VI London Poetry Festival 2017: October 14-15

Let there be surging seas of weaving coral lights
Let there be flights of light-lifting choral songs
And sun-sure-rise of larks of sublime joys to seize
Let us meet and greet sit and read as all hearts
Blend in and mend on and mind our dreams

October 14-15: Sat-Sun: 19:00-23:00

|| September 22: 2017 || ά. Regular readers would notice the fact that the Festival webpage has had a total redesign. We will be adding other archived materials as we go along. But here is the most important thing: we invite all the poets, readers, performers, singers, song writers, composers, bands and community choir and orchestras to join in. There will be an Open Air Music Session from 19:00-19:30 on both evening: and the Festival proceedings start at 19:30: when bands, choirs, orchestras can play. And there would be two other Music Slots: a short one in the first half and one slightly longer at the end on both evening.

Therefore, please, get in touch if you would like to take part in Festival. And poets, readers and performers and all others, who have any other relevant presentations with poetry or music, please, get involved in and with the community. There would be a few Open Mic Slots on both evening but they are very limited in numbers. If you would like to take up one of these slots, please, contact us with a little about yourself and your writing and performing and send up just one poem, that you would like to read. And the Festival Team will soon let you know whether and when you can read. We are looking to offer these slots to the most promising new and emerging voices.

Other little important issues: The Festival is FREE to the poetry and music lovers but a donation will be expected to help support the necessary costs. Having paid for the expenses, if the Festival has any money left, that will be donated to Doctors Without Borders:MSF. Even if the Festival is FREE, we have a 'finite' number of seats, few hundreds, and therefore, it is necessary to have tickets. And, thus, Tickets MUST be Booked. Though the Festival is FREE: But tickets MUST BE Booked. Here is The Festival Eventbrite Page. Even if you are reading or performing or taking part in the Festival, please, make sure you book your tickets beforehand.

There is a Cafe within the Church where food and drinks are served. Those wanting to have a meal can do so at the Cafe. For all the poets, musicians, performers, musical groups and all those, who love poetry are invited to join us. Poets and musicians wanting to take part, please, get in touch: editor at thehumanion.com. Volunteers: The Festival needs volunteers. Join us and let us celebrate the word. Normally, the Festival was held for four-evenings. Because we are resuming the Festival after a break, this year, the Festival is beginning with two-evenings. ω.

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The VI London Poetry Festival 2017: October 14-15: Saturday-Sunday at The London Notting Hill St John's Church

VI London Poetry Festival 2017: October 14-15

Let there be surging seas of weaving coral lights
Let there be flights of light-lifting choral songs
And sun-sure-rise of larks of sublime joys to seize
Let us meet and greet sit and read as all hearts
Blend in and mend on and mind our dreams

October 14-15: Sat-Sun: 19:00-23:00

Coming Together: Claire Askew

In the early days, when your feet still struggled,
each morning, to find themselves, you inhabited a city
that only made sense on paper. I, the flitting
white cane that guided you, steered us
through espresso daydreams on yawning streets,
beneath bus-shelters – we were both blind –
doe-eyed and awe-full among stricken gallery frames.

 

Fairies and Fireflies: Rachel Finn

Chariot-bearing heroes race the landscape
For this is make believe land
And you are my centre-piece

The world is essentially
A tableau of glitter
Of love and adventure, forever and ever
Where a feeling spans the universe
And you make my dream
I like to believe
I fall and I see

 

Water Cycle: Helen Long

vapours of the voice
formation and reflection
understanding parcels crystallise

kaleidoscopic patterns
of milieu emerge
memories and faith its self repeats

Out of Interwoven Mess: Kerry-Fleur Schleifer

Shadows mingle
and create an interwoven mess.

'I am your lover.' he said,
caught by the half shadow, half light.

'Will you wax and wane upon
my motionless
silhouette?'

 

Floating beside shoulders: Philip Ruthen

To make you
of memory
is all I have
after being close enough
to kiss your tousled smile

 

Sun and Moon: Holly New

What am I supposed to say?
Cover it up by moving you in the way,
Then replace you when I’m afraid
Didn’t you know, I’m not the same

Serve me and do to impress,
But I praise only to repress,
You remind me of a love that was lost
I’ve been turned to ice, whatever I touch is frost.

 

Castle Rabbits, Edinburgh: Aiko Harman

Down the slope of castle crag, a family of cottontails
duck into the close of fallen rock, a warren
of underground homes. At dawn, as the tourist buses
line the castle-side of Johnston Terrace, the rabbits rest.

Jackdaws caw and peck at the after-trail of hare.
Men in dark suits sit at benches, face the fortress
on lunch breaks, stare blankly at mobile phones,
the last pages of a book – have forgotten the castle,
the rabbits, in all their daily toxic repetition.

 
Paradox: Isobel Dixon

 

There’s no telling what
will make the heart leap, frog-
like, landing with a soggy plop.
Love startles, makes a mockery
of us, and yet we lie awake
at night and croak and croak for it.

East to Nowhere: Briony Dennis

Take me into the earth.
Smelling the dark soil.
Breathing the dew-damp dark.

Will I have left samsara then?
Every sign representing another
and another and neither representing
a real thing.

Take me back.
There is no going back
or forwards
or standing still,
there is no direction.
Merely correction,
rumbling in these catacombs.
The truth is now. This second. This instant,
the heart of mind, is brought home
in an instant, by the drowning of the telephone,
the destruction of the doorbell,
the demolition of 2.4 and the dinner party.
It's brought home for an instant…

Somewhere along the way to finding something,
to keep us from thinking about that which we should not lose,
whilst we distracted ourselves from that which we were losing.

We forgot to breathe.
To bring it home.

Sit, as the world wheels about you,
Ride the bus, as the universe flounders
and what will we leave?
Empty promises and shiny cars,
we didn't so much as look at the world,
or touch it with a curious finger.
Yet.

|| September 19: 2017 || ά. The VI London Poetry Festival 2017: October 14-15: Saturday-Sunday: 19:00-23:00. Poetry and Music Festival. The Festival started in 2005 and went on for five years; the fifth being held in 2009. This year the Festival resumes its celebrations of the word and the poetry and music in it so much so that that it contains the perform for the human soul to give it room enough as to be able to flow like the Universe. This event is FREE to the poetry and music lovers but a donation will be expected to help support the necessary costs. The Festival's time is between 19:00 and 23:00 but actual readings and musical performances will take place 19:30 and 22:30. But Tickets MUST be Booked.

There is a Cafe within the Church where food and drinks are served. Those wanting to have a meal can do so at the Cafe. For all the poets, musicians, performers, musical groups and all those, who love poetry are invited to join us. Poets and musicians wanting to take part, please, get in touch: editor at thehumanion.com. Volunteers: The Festival needs volunteers. Join us and let us celebrate the word. For further on the Festival, please, visit the Festival Website. Normally, the Festival was held for four-evenings. Because we are resuming the Festival after a break, this year, the Festival is beginning with two-evenings. ω.

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Bright Star : John Keats

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art--
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--
No--yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever--or else swoon to death.

 

The VI London Poetry Festival 2017: October 14-15: Saturday-Sunday at The London Notting Hill St John's Church

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming Together: Claire Askew

Poet in Residence at the 4th London Poetry Festival 2008

In the early days, when your feet still struggled,
each morning, to find themselves, you inhabited a city
that only made sense on paper. I, the flitting
white cane that guided you, steered us
through espresso daydreams on yawning streets,
beneath bus-shelters – we were both blind –
doe-eyed and awe-full among stricken gallery frames.


I remember you burning curls of incense
in a paper cup, scrawling on yourself –
your veins seemed to run on the outside of your skin,
liquidising your heart into the palm of your hand.
It was from there that your ash fell in the rain –
you started to smoke like an army man, that night,
as we sheltered against the steel doors
under scaffolding.

We took turns at artistic hysteria. I was your
Dorothy Wordsworth, your emotional proof-reader –
a writer of long-winded, comforting notes; a patient,
smiling model for myriad screwed-up sketches. In turn,
you suggested adjectives from behind newspaper folds;
filled the bathtub with autumn leaves – you fitted
stubborn typewriter ribbons, cursing, and blackened
to the wrist.

Soon, you solved the conundrum of your new
existence – turned correctly at the lights
without my prompt. Just like your escape from a life
lived between the pages of an A – Z, you began
to solve me; recognised my bad traits in the identity parade
of our love. Stupidly, I never thought to try
and trick you; simply buttoned you up with revelations –
talismans for the expedition ahead.

And so, we find ourselves cover-snatching under the jaws
of the night – I wear your shirts, confuse you
with my inexplicable scent. You read aloud to me,
memorise the poetic names of the beers I drink, insist
on paying for groceries. Somewhere, it seems, between the lost
and the finding, we scooped out a mould for ourselves
where the sky touches ground; a groove in the wood –
and somehow, with hands locked like puzzle-pieces, unnoticed,
we fit.

The VI London Poetry Festival 2017: October 14-15: Saturday-Sunday at The London Notting Hill St John's Church

|| September 19: 2017 || ά. The VI London Poetry Festival 2017: October 14-15: Saturday-Sunday: 19:00-23:00. Poetry and Music Festival. The Festival started in 2005 and went on for five years; the fifth being held in 2009. This year the Festival resumes its celebrations of the word and the poetry and music in it so much so that that it contains the perform for the human soul to give it room enough as to be able to flow like the Universe.

This event is FREE to the poetry and music lovers but a donation will be expected to help support the necessary costs. The Festival's time is between 19:00 and 23:00 but actual readings and musical performances will take place 19:30 and 22:30. There is a Cafe within the Church where food and drinks are served. Those wanting to have a meal can do so at the Cafe. For all the poets, musicians, performers, musical groups and all those, who love poetry are invited to join us.

Poets and musicians wanting to take part, please, get in touch: editor at thehumanion.com
Volunteers: The Festival needs volunteers. Join us and let us celebrate the word.

For further on the Festival, please, visit the Festival Website. Normally, the Festival was held for four-evenings. Because we are resuming the Festival after a break, this year, the Festival is beginning with two-evenings. The VII Festival will go back to the Four-Evenings and will be in 2018: October 14-17. Please, do not hesitate to contact us.

Though the Festival is FREE, tickets MUST BE Booked. Here is The Festival Eventbrite Page. Readers, poets, performers, musicians and music bands: This year the Festival is happening over two evenings, not four so that the space-slots for performances are halved, therefore, it is going to be fierce. So hurry.

Thank you very much.

Munayem Mayenin
Editor: The Humanion Online Daily
Festival Director: The London Poetry Festival

On Behalf of The Humanion and The London Poetry Festival Team: The Festival Team Has Been
Claire Askew: Festival Development Director: Sharon Harriott: Festival Public Relations Director: Dilu Naser: Community Poetry Lead: Munayem Mayenin: Festival Director. The Humanion is a Human Enterprise: We Celebrate Humanity and It is Not a Business. The London Poetry Festival is Run on the Same Basis. ω.

Whatever Your Field of Work and Wherever in the World You are, Please, Make a Choice to Do All You Can to Seek and Demand the End of Death Penalty For It is Your Business What is Done in Your Name. The Law That Makes Humans Take Part in Taking Human Lives and That Permits and Kills Human Lives is No Law. It is the Rule of the Jungle Where Law Does Not Exist. The Humanion

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Off the Pages of History

 

VI London Poetry Festival 2017: October 14-17: Notting Hill St John's Church

 

Glad to report that London Festival has found a home at one of the Most Beautiful Churches in London, Notting Hill St John's Church, so that in October 2017 during 14-17, Saturday to Tuesday, between the hours of 19:00 and 23:00, you all are invited to join us to celebrate the word; the word, is like the human soul for it has neither shape nor colour. It exists allwhere and people say it's in the sound, it's in the records or in the video or it's in the books, it's in the dictionaries, it's in the memories, it's in the arts, in culture, it's in poetry and so on. But it exists nowhere but in a domain of its own that cannot be got hold off and put in a cup or plate to be shown: look, this is the word! The existence of word is the validity of the existence of our soul: a shapeless, colourless, boundless infinity unfolding itself.

This beautiful church is a place where light prays, paints and writes poetry. Unless you have been inside the Church you would not know what is meant by 'where light prays, paints and writes poetry'. If you would like to 'see' peace' alive you ought to get inside the solemnity of this Church and see how peace looks like, feels like.

And therefore, we are happy and you are all invited to join us in the celebration.

Look forward to hear from you poets, musicians, singers and songwriters, authors, artists, cultural folks and all the science and research workers working away in many a field of wonders who are into poetry and music are welcome, too, from all over the UK, Europe and the wider world. Here are some photographs of how this Beautiful Church looked on the Hill, beneath the beautiful spread of the illuminated sky, on October 10.

Booking:Registration

The hall would accommodate hundreds: but that 'hundreds' are limited in number! Therefore, Booking is Absolutely Necessary. Send in your request for how many seats you would like to book, send the names of the people attending, how old they are, and your name, email address must be added to editor at thehumanion.com with subject line: LP Festiva l2017 Tickets. You will get an email offering you confirmation of the booking. You would need to keep a print out of this email which will act as your tickets.

Tickets

As we have said, there is no ticket price. It is FREE. A voluntary donation would be asked to help cover the cost and offer some support to the participating performing folks with their travelling expenses etc. Any penny remaining, if any would, after the payment of the cost, we shall donate those pennies to Medecines Sans Frontieres:MSF. But from experience The Festival Team has always paid for the cost with very little support from the very little money that were raised in the past festivals.

About the Facilities at the Church

There is a Cafeteria at the Church that is run by the Church which will serve hot and cold drinks and food. We have arranged that they would serve a special menu catering for all food tastes. The Church is very likely to be accessible from about 18:00 hours so that people could come and have a meal before the festival if they have not had time to already. This facility is run by the Church and we have nothing to do with it.

About the Festival Schedule

The Reading would start at 19:30 and end at 22:30 with three parts, in between there would be two breaks. Music sessions would be earlier in the evening and probably be set at the beginning of the two halves to avoid late 'noise' disturbance to the local folks.

Music

Individual musicians, singers or bands can have short slot in the three sessions. However, we are looking for four different choirs:orchestras:bands who are are doing the music the way we are doing the Festival: not for money, community initiatives. They would play before the Festival Programme starts: they would be playing music up to 19:30. To offer more groups the opportunity to join in we might give two groups on each evening which means we need eight groups. Please, get in touch.

Open Mic

There would be open mic reading opportunities for new readers. These readers would be placed sparsely between the line up so that there is not a particular open mic slot as such. If you would like to read, send in only one poem and write a little about yourself and you will be notified whether you are given a space to read.

Volunteering

If you would like to volunteer and help us with the Festival, please, get in touch. You need to be able to give us four days of your time, say from midday till midnight of October 14-17! Your travel expenses would be reimbursed and you will be given all the support and assistance that you might need. Applicants must be 18 and over.

For All Other Information

Please, scroll down and read on where you would find all the necessary information. If in doubt or have a question or suggestion, send an email to the address given above. Please, remember, the subject line: LP Festival 2017.

See you all there at the Church.

The Humanion and London Poetry Festival Team

October 10: 2016

VI London Poetry Festival 2017: October 14-17

As we had said when the Festival dates were moved to October that the Festival would seek to get back to Waterloo St John's Church, we sought to get the venue. Despite our desperate disappointment, we found and had to accept that fact that some Orchestra had booked part of the weekend so that we could not hold the Festival the way it was always held: through a four-evening celebrating Poetry. Other venues were sought without much success and we wanted a venue that would be as wonderful as Waterloo St John's. Therefore, it is 2017: the VI London Poetry Festival: October 14-17. Saturday-Tuesday: 19:00-23:00.

Despite the disappointment, please, you do not seek to get disappointment, missing out a slot to read at the Festival. Thus, get involved and be part of the Festival. This time, if we do not find a great venue, we shall hold the Festival outdoors! Where: Victoria Gate: Notting Hill. If it rains? We shall carry umbrellas and laminate our poetry-printed papers so that that we can read even in the rain! But The London Festival shall begin the celebration of poetry, again in October, in 2017.

Despite our sadness, we continue to celebrate October The Poetry Month and The Candle Won't Blow Out William Shakespeare Celebration 2016. Special posts would be made throughout October, particularly, during the time when we were to hold the Festival this year: October 14-17.

Keep reading.

The Humanion and the London Poetry Festival Team

October 08:2016

Treasure: Claire Askew



I will fold you away in crackling tissue,
carefully, with the yellow photographs
of soldiers you knew.  I will fold up your image,
to carry with me - white, brittle and dry,
like a word, a whisper, always on my tongue.

VI London Poetry Festival 2017


Let there be surging seas of weaving coral lights
Let there be flights of light-lifting choral songs
And sun-sure-rise of larks of sublime joys to seize
Let us meet and greet sit and read as all hearts
Blend in and mend on and mind our dreams
October 14-15: Sat-Sun: 19:00-23:00

East to Nowhere: Briony Dennis

In the stretched second before dawn.
In the final breath of frost before spring.
In the blast of August during May.
Then it is only the reflection of an instant.

East to Nowhere: Briony Dennis
Poet in Residence at III London Poetry Festival 2007

I

Take me into the earth.
Smelling the dark soil.
Breathing the dew-damp dark.
Will I have left samsara then?
Every sign representing another
and another and neither representing
a real thing.
Take me back.
There is no going back
or forwards
or standing still,
there is no direction.
Merely correction,
rumbling in these catacombs.
The truth is now. This second. This instant,
the heart of mind, is brought home
in an instant, by the drowning of the telephone,
the destruction of the doorbell,
the demolition of 2.4 and the dinner party.
It's brought home for an instant…
Somewhere along the way to finding something,
to keep us from thinking about that which we should not lose,
whilst we distracted ourselves from that which we were losing.
We forgot to breathe.
To bring it home.
Sit, as the world wheels about you,
Ride the bus, as the universe flounders
and what will we leave?
Empty promises and shiny cars,
we didn't so much as look at the world,
or touch it with a curious finger.
Yet.


II


In the stretched second before dawn.
In the final breath of frost before spring.
In the blast of August during May.
Then it is only the reflection of an instant.
Mirrored in a pool of dust.
It stands alone on an expanse of ice,
towering down a sprawling look over the cold.
Spinning about the pole.
Watching.
Invoking our intercession.
But we have no time for contemplation.
It terrifies. Creeps into your heart.
The stone-still dusk
whisper of the real you.

I am me: Katherine Michaud


Of everything, a little stayed.
The world, vast and unexplored by my eyes,
never called my name.
The office, seemingly always open.
The groceries, seemingly always gone.
I am here.

Coming Together : Claire Askew
Poet in Residence at the IV London Poetry Festival 2008


In the early days, when your feet still struggled,
each morning, to find themselves, you inhabited a city
that only made sense on paper. I, the flitting
white cane that guided you, steered us
through espresso daydreams on yawning streets,
beneath bus-shelters – we were both blind –
doe-eyed and awe-full among stricken gallery frames.
I remember you burning curls of incense
in a paper cup, scrawling on yourself –
your veins seemed to run on the outside of your skin,
liquidising your heart into the palm of your hand.
It was from there that your ash fell in the rain –
you started to smoke like an army man, that night,
as we sheltered against the steel doors
under scaffolding.

We took turns at artistic hysteria. I was your
Dorothy Wordsworth, your emotional proof-reader –
a writer of long-winded, comforting notes; a patient,
smiling model for myriad screwed-up sketches. In turn,
you suggested adjectives from behind newspaper folds;
filled the bathtub with autumn leaves – you fitted
stubborn typewriter ribbons, cursing, and blackened
to the wrist.

Soon, you solved the conundrum of your new
existence – turned correctly at the lights
without my prompt. Just like your escape from a life
lived between the pages of an A – Z, you began
to solve me; recognised my bad traits in the identity parade
of our love. Stupidly, I never thought to try
and trick you; simply buttoned you up with revelations –
talismans for the expedition ahead.
And so, we find ourselves cover-snatching under the jaws
of the night – I wear your shirts, confuse you
with my inexplicable scent. You read aloud to me,
memorise the poetic names of the beers I drink, insist
on paying for groceries. Somewhere, it seems, between the lost
and the finding, we scooped out a mould for ourselves
where the sky touches ground; a groove in the wood –
and somehow, with hands locked like puzzle-pieces, unnoticed,
we fit.

 

If I Don’t Write A Great Poem Before I Die: Nnorom Azuonye
Poet in Residence at IV London Poetry Festival 2008


If I don’t write a great poem before I die,
no wings of music to bear you home after earth
eater of mighty meat has eaten me, you will have
nothing to show off at your friends with,
nothing to prove you witnessed the exit of a poet.
Death that ordinary frightens poets to death.

If I don’t write a great poem before I die,
fetch a voice like silk rubbing against a black man’s hair,
to recite ‘A Kinder Cull’ by Griselda Scott,
let it console they who mourn me, they who will miss me,
that they may understand, life’s mill must do without
this grist…but only if I died old and happy.

If I don’t write a great poem before I die,
high-horse riders may gallop down here to sneer;
they will claim I ignored the heartache of storms,
say that I was numb to the pain of volcanoes,
they will show me tears in the eyes of a giant,
and share the fear in growls of a tropical thunder.

If I do write a great poem before I die,
release masquerades, pound drums, bring out flutes.
Let every voice recite its favourite line,
say it shows darkness cannot be the fruit of light
and when it mattered, jaws unlocked, I spoke out loud,
about fires, about flowers, about war and about peace.


A poetic statement: Gracia Iglesias
 

It consisted of wisely arranging the silence
the hours
sometimes as well
the night with its choir of beasts.
It consisted of not fearing starvation
and of learning the cold from broken birds
In order to unwrite ourselves in their feathers.
It consisted of boiling stones of smoke
and drinking the dregs of wait
before sunrise.
It consisted of dying all the deaths
living on tiptoe
correcting heaven and hell.
It consisted, after all,
of being only thirst.

: Sunset over the Savannah with blue tree: Translation from
Spanish original: Dr Natalia Carbajosa:

Able: Tomas Sanchez Santiago

Join the precise valour to initiate the day.
The formulae of sleep, with the first bells,
start burning; and you begin the morning’s
hard slopes, shining and restless
like summer honey left upon your shoulders.
Besides you, heavily fall names and numbers.
And the street noise: a cruel commodity
you cannot grasp today.

You follow with the sweet storm
of another name in your lips.
And you start coming
down the evening end, where walls with sun
from certain last streets that leave you sleepless
when looked straight are awaiting you.

Eventually, overcome and simple, you will learn
how to conform to endings: night and its offers.
And when forsaken by modesty sabres
you will believe to have been, at least, able of deserving
the negative rose the day drops at the door
of those who do not yield, and know there is relief
traversing on their own the frozen palaces
of thought, where are no summons,
nor eagerness, nor company: a length only
of terrible visits leaping over the window
to replace the world there, in the cold
stores of the customary, where somebody has lit
 – able, unauthorized – the light of strangeness.

: Translation from Spanish original : Dr Natalia Carbajosa:

The Beauty in the Dark: Tony Fernandez
Poet in Residence at 5th London Poetry Festival 2009

Last night I felt The Beauty in The Dark,
Warm whispers felt upon the mystery of a stream,
And in the stillness of the night,
I kissed the moon,
for lost children wonder upon the valleys of this earth.
 
Last night I swayed amongst the rivers of a life,
And through the thunders I found your smile,
But in the silence of your eyes you said goodnight,
And in the richness of your grasp I felt a cry.
 
But Africa,
In the spirit of your song,
I knew your shadow,
And in the richness of your grace I took that train,
for the howling drums in my mother's backyard
Awakes my spirit,
And in the corners of your eyes,
I have shared a story ....
A dream ... A Life ...
 
But now it is dark, and I cannot see you,
And the voices from my elders begin to drown,
Now it is late and I cannot hear you,
For time seperates the marshlands of this open forest,
Where the breasts of this earth
Feeds the souls of my many brothers.

Tonight I drank music in a foreign lake,
I sang history on an empty shore,
And when I danced the trees began to shiver,
For the voices in my dark
Became too dark ... too firm ... too real ...
 
The night is young and beautiful,
The shadows are still wandering in their hundreds,
From a distance I hear the crows of the cock.
And so I danced,
For in your story,
Life found a new voice
And in your glory hope found a new song.  

Paradox: Isobel Dixon
 

There’s no telling what
will make the heart leap, frog-
like, landing with a soggy plop.
Love startles, makes a mockery
of us, and yet we lie awake
at night and croak and croak for it.


Blue to orange: Juli Jeana


Poet in Residence at the III London Poetry Festival


He saw my tree full season
Bearing fruit of red and green
Against the cerulean sky
Claiming the reality of me
Painted the colours as I would
Dipping his brush in my words
Mixing pigment unknown to him
Placing in complementary hues
Bright fruit against violet
For suddenly he spoke through my eyes
His touch grazing the surface
Extracted the fire from the grain
Until the orange shouted

Copyrights remain with the authors


 

Treasure: Claire Askew
Poet in Residence at IV London Poetry Festival 2008
 

Tonight, as I drive along a purple lane
under the swallow-tail of the evening,
I will think of you.  I can picture you -
your delicate skirts like the petals of a poppy,
stalk legs, black, with heels clicking -
your quick-step, on cobbles in a lamp-lit square.

In the cavernous chapel of my mind's eye,
I will watch you emerge, moth-like
in soft reams of white - watch as you waltz
between pews, take the arm of a man
I recognise.  I will think of your smile

behind a newspaper counter, the sound of silver
against the rings on your hand - I will think
of your pearls, like a cold, smoothed spine
across your neck, of your thumbs, turned black
with newsprint.  I am reminded

of your best teaset, the tall, slim coffeepot;
the Welsh dresser, full of porcelain horses
and silver spoons.  In my mind I will pass
the lake you loved, glimpse its shimmer between trees,
then speed away.  I will wander through

the rooms of your house, still heavy
with flower-scent and the breath of your cigarette -
finding your knitting and handkerchiefs,
the secret bottle of whisky, your stockings
and letters in the coffin of a drawer.

I will fold you away in crackling tissue,
carefully, with the yellow photographs
of soldiers you knew.  I will fold up your image,
to carry with me - white, brittle and dry,
like a word, a whisper, always on my tongue.

Floating beside shoulders: Philip Ruthen
Poet in Residence at II London Poetry Festival 2006

 

To make you
of memory
is all I have
after being close enough
to kiss your tousled smile

as you lay your breath
in place
here, I pull the sheets around
then into me
legs wound to forearms

you I sense are naked
arms flung behind your head –
this artifice; I can’t do justice
to the touch of you
an invitation

to living holding within
our dancing fingertips
your nape our liberty
the call – the caress
that asks for now.

The Address: Sharon Harriott

Number 00 Fortune Raw, Tooting,
London, SW00 OHL,
United Kingdom,
Earth,
The Universe

Tree green, dotted with tiny white flowers,
The large roomed imitated a forest glade.
So different to outside, the grey, and the red.
The cars, the shops and the school run.

The bed dominated its vast centre,
Its Barbie pink beckoned comfy nights.
No more bars, only the rumple of PVC.
And no more bruises on elbows and shins.

If I looked right, from the sash window,
I could see the park, and imagine the slides.
Beyond, a hospital chimney spewed soot,
And the leisure centre with D.I.S.C.O at 8pm.

The magic cupboard had a brass-handled door,
I could crouch and hide with Humpty.
Until I realised the dark had crept in,
Then jump the small divide to mum’s.

 

Helen Long

Water Cycle


vapours of the voice
formation and reflection
understanding parcels crystallise

kaleidoscopic patterns
of milieu emerge
memories and faith its self repeats

sustainable inconstancy

as particles spin partners
receptors to be tickled in the flux

the cloud is non material
and mounting in tactility
It lets steam

Rains sovereignless in sight
Sipping a lightning strike

Kerry-Fleur Schleifer

Out of Interwoven Mess

Shadows mingle
and create an interwoven mess.

'I am your lover.' he said,
caught by the half shadow, half light.

'Will you wax and wane upon
my motionless
silhouette?'

My elegant contoured figure
gives enough detail...in a
single flat mood

A black mind
upon a white imagination

Give me your outline
I give you my depth
of surface

An ocean's clarity
quite plainly speaks
with the quivering of
a swelling tongue

I am me     

Katherine Michaud
Poets' Letter First Ever Featured Poet
 

Of everything, a little stayed.
The world, vast and unexplored by my eyes,
never called my name.
The office, seemingly always open.
The groceries, seemingly always gone.
I am here.

Of everything, a little changed.
Universities, with all their pull,
still call my name.
Salisbury, suburban and friendly.
Baltimore, a strange city, full of strangers.
I always answer.

Of everyone, a few stayed.
Sisters, with all of their goals,
moved far away.
The older, conferencing in Switzerland.
The other, studying in Boston.
I am here.

Of everyone, a few changed.
Mother, with her singsong tone,
still calls my name.
Her calls, seemingly always echo.
Her needs, seemingly always unfulfilled.
I always answer.

Of everything, a little stayed.
A little changed.
Of everyone, a few stayed.
A few changed.
The world keeps turning and
I am still me.

Rachel Finn

Fairies and Fireflies    


Chariot-bearing heroes race the landscape
For this is make believe land
And you are my centre-piece

The world is essentially
A tableau of glitter
Of love and adventure, forever and ever
Where a feeling spans the universe
And you make my dream
I like to believe
I fall and I see

The thousands, the number of possibilities
Of fairies
Of fireflies
Of flying with wings
Of sun that is bright
And snow that is pale
Loosing life in paradise
Never loosing the way
Forever and ever
Part of my fairytale.

Aiko Harman

Poet in Residence at 5th London Poetry Festival 2009

Castle Rabbits, Edinburgh


Down the slope of castle crag, a family of cottontails
duck into the close of fallen rock, a warren
of underground homes. At dawn, as the tourist buses
line the castle-side of Johnston Terrace, the rabbits rest.

Jackdaws caw and peck at the after-trail of hare.
Men in dark suits sit at benches, face the fortress
on lunch breaks, stare blankly at mobile phones,
the last pages of a book – have forgotten the castle,
the rabbits, in all their daily toxic repetition.

But as the summer sun wanes in the sky, past six,
past seven, still bright, the rabbits make their runs,
zag through yellow wildflowers across the old slope
the castle guards, and stop only to sniff at the cameras.

Sun and Moon: Holly New

What am I supposed to say?
Cover it up by moving you in the way,
Then replace you when I’m afraid
Didn’t you know, I’m not the same

Serve me and do to impress,
But I praise only to repress,
You remind me of a love that was lost
I’ve been turned to ice, whatever I touch is frost.

But I think you may have made me ignite,
Something set off when you held me tight,
You make me melt when in those arms,
I think you could be breaking my charm.

My blue heart feels like velvet wrapped in you
I think you’re the sun and I am the moon
I don’t shiver, or hold up the night
I can sleep under thundering skies.

The white in the dark is me and you
It’s so wrong but so right too.
My face like snow and you let me know
That you will never ever let me go

The boats not rocking the tide is fine
But if you jolt it I’ll turn you to ice,
I can’t admit I’ll properly change,
No-one can differ from their inner ways.

Dedalus: Natalia Carbajosa

Translated from her original Spanish by the poet herself


I’m still not ready for them.

I haven’t designed devices which caress their faces
further than a drop from the shore which would seek my lips
and burst at my ankles

further than the mosquito which I crush between my fingers
without further reason than the childish will
of human scale versus insect scale.

I count the sand grains and I know
that I will die before they feel the gentle touch of my wing
against the firmament.

Copyrights remain with the authors

The Humanion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   
Arkived Images of the Past Festivals
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sarah Wardle at the V London Poetry Festival and Her Poem Turquoise
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VI London Poetry Festival 2017: October 14-17

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The V London Poetry Festival 2009

The Candle Won't Blow Out Celebration of William Shakespeare 2016

There is no better way to celebrate William Shakespeare than reading his life's works

 

Hamlet

What a piece of work
is a ''man''! How noble in reason! how infinite in
faculties! in form and moving, how express and
admirable! in action, how like an angel! in
apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the
world! The paragon of animals!

Sonnet

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O, no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

400 years since the passing of William Shakespeare this year, yet he seems as young by as many years...................

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Candle Won't Blow Out Celebration of William Shakespeare 2016

            Sarah Wardle and Claire Askew at The IV London Poetry Festival 2008                   I London Poetry Festival : Isobel Dixon among other poets starting the LPF in 2005

Poets' Letter Magazine Archives Poetry Pearl

 

Katherine Michaud

Sharon Harriott

Claire Askew

Isobel Dixon

Sara L. Russell

Victoria Valentine

Leanne O'Sullivan

Victoria Heath

Briony Dennis

Girija Shettar

Mary Ann Lily Philip Ruthen

 Molara Wood 

Isabel White

Aiko Harman

Laura Bartholomew

Bryan Oliver

Deema K Shihabi Nathalie Handal

Laura Solomon

Notting Hill St John's Church

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Elleesium Rose: The English-Language Rose: The Isfahan Rose: The Elsewhere Rose: The Humanion Rose: The Elleesian Rose: We Call Her By So Many a Name for She Bloomed on October 14 in the Year The Humanion Began Its Journey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Elleesium Beautiful London Everything London

 
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|| All copyrights @ The Humanion: London: England: United Kingdom || Contact: The Humanion: editor at thehumanion.com || Regine Humanics Foundation Ltd: elleesium at reginehumanicsfoundation.com || Editor-In-Chief: Munayem Mayenin || First Published: September 24: 2015 ||
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