https://www.albany.edu/offcourse
http://offcourse.org
ISSN 1556-4975 
 

Poems, by Christopher Barnes.

 

Ode To A Brick

Until you free-fall off her window
Hang fire half-awake,
Let stars tattoo a silver lining
On your uncemented back.

 

 

Of Being Away From The City

All in. The go-getters have gone
Boys, ripe perfection, their kissability,
Gay dog clothes,
The landlocked sun
On tumble dried hair
Is bright as silver,
That certain crowd
Down littered streets.

No neon here, no free-basing,
Cabs run polite miles
On seed-leaf, trick of light tarmac, skiddy
Buckskin lanes without the thump
Of dance music.

Oh Universe!

Two es and a strange glow
Sesame streeted into the head
Lamp-light night
Oh moon button
Fasten your warm coat!
Goat-walker
Beard from your smile!
This is the fast city
The ambulance does not throw grit
For slippers
Behind the rays of rhythmical
Around the eyes music
Darkness is orange
Junemass is in the fridge
Pickled and speckled
In the coming transformation
I will be
A blue-yellow crow
Or a black star
Tonight’s apes are skirted
The bucking rodeos asleep
Along this walk of hops
No one counts the bright lights

Some bio details...
in 1998 I won a Northern Arts writers award. In July 200 I read at Waterstones bookshop to promote the anthology 'Titles Are Bitches'. Christmas 2001 I debuted at Newcastle's famous Morden Tower doing a reading of my poems. Each year I read for Proudwords lesbian and gay writing festival and I partake in workshops. 2005 saw the publication of my collection LOVEBITES published by Chanticleer Press, 6/1 Jamaica Mews, Edinburgh.

On Saturday 16th August 2003 I read at the Edinburgh Festival as a Per Verse poet at LGBT Centre, Broughton St.

I also have a BBC webpage

http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/gay.2004/05/section_28.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/videonation/stories/gay_history.shtml

(If thr first site does not work click on SECTION 28 on second site.)

Christmas 2001 The Northern Cultural Skills Partnership sponsored me to be mentored by Andy Croft in conjunction with New Writing North. I made a radio programme for Web FM community radio about my writing group. October-November 2005, I entered a poem/visual image into the art exhibition The Art Cafe Project; my piece Post-Mark was shown in Betty's Newcastle. This event was sponsored by Pride On The Tyne. I made a digital film with artists Kate Sweeney and Julie Ballands at a film making workshop called Out Of The Picture which was shown at the festival party for Proudwords. The film is going into an archive at The Discovery Museum in Newcastle and contains my poem The Old Heave-Ho. I worked on a collaborative art and literature project called How Gay Are Your Genes, facilitated by Lisa Mathews (poet) which exhibited at The Hatton Gallery, Newcastle University before touring the country and it is expected to go abroad, funded by The Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Institute, Bioscience Centre at Newcastle's Centre for Life. I was involved in the Five Arts Cities poetry postcard event which exhibited at The Seven Stories children's literature building. In May I had 2006 a solo art/poetry exhibition at The People's Theatre http://ptag.org.uk/whats_on/gulbenkian/gulbenkian.htm

The South Bank Centre in London recorded my poem "The Holiday I Never Had"; I can be heard reading it on www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record.asp?id=18456

REVIEWS: I have written poetry reviews for Poetry Scotland and Jacket Magazine and in August 2007 I made a film called 'A Blank Screen, 60 seconds, 1 shot' for Queerbeats Festival at The Star & Shadow Cinema Newcastle, reviewing a poem...see www.myspace.com/queerbeatsfestival

Christopher Barnes' work has appeared numerous times in Offcourse.

Comments? Tell us!

Back to Offcourse home page