POETRY AGAINST HOMELESSNESS - booklet + pamphlet
POETRY AGAINST HOMELESSNESS - BOOKLET AND PAMPHLET - LIMITED EDITION OF 50
Two publications of poetry written by the I Am Not Who You Think I Am writing collective. One A4 Booklet featuring William Blake cover art and one A5 pamphlet of poems written in the pandemic. Your purchase will help raise money to support people who have experienced homelessness. See excerpts below for a taste of these great poems. Any questions please email: newriver@thenewriverpress.com.
POETRY AGAINST HOMELESSNESS - BOOKLET AND PAMPHLET - LIMITED EDITION OF 50
Two publications of poetry written by the I Am Not Who You Think I Am writing collective. One A4 Booklet featuring William Blake cover art and one A5 pamphlet of poems written in the pandemic. Your purchase will help raise money to support people who have experienced homelessness. See excerpts below for a taste of these great poems. Any questions please email: newriver@thenewriverpress.com.
POETRY AGAINST HOMELESSNESS - BOOKLET AND PAMPHLET - LIMITED EDITION OF 50
Two publications of poetry written by the I Am Not Who You Think I Am writing collective. One A4 Booklet featuring William Blake cover art and one A5 pamphlet of poems written in the pandemic. Your purchase will help raise money to support people who have experienced homelessness. See excerpts below for a taste of these great poems. Any questions please email: newriver@thenewriverpress.com.
Introduction to Pamphlet
The I Am Not Who You Think I Am writing group was hosted at Crisis Skylight. Today we are on the phone. On video chats. On email. We provide workshops, one-to-one surgeries, and general friendship. Here are some poems from this process.
People who’ve experienced homelessness have particular experiences of quarantine and social distancing. The insecurity and isolation all too familiar to the homeless are now felt widely through our locked down world. In our separation there are opportunities for connection. A chance to build solidarity.
Society will change from our reactions to this pandemic. The emotions come in waves: anxiety, hope, grief, excitement, dread, panic, boredom, anger. The everyday is changing in ways we will soon forget. Poetry is well placed to capture these changes. To give expression to what we want to wish into existence.
Thank you for your support so far to make this happen. We are an unfunded collective and in need of support to stay connected. Money raised will buy laptops, phones, and cover project costs. If you can donate please email newriver@thenewriverpress.com or see the link on the back cover. Please tell your friends too.
Introduction to Booklet
One in two hundred in the UK are homeless. At least. Between the stigma that keeps so many silent, the hidden homeless, and the quiet deaths left unrecorded, we cannot grasp an accurate picture. The scale seems insurmountable. The issue insoluble. William Blake’s dark vision of modern London is unnervingly resonant. What can poetry be in the face of this? A fitful protest or temporary balm? Or, like Blake, a prophecy? A dream-song of liberation from existing systems with a boundless sense of human potential? Abstract questions don’t offer straightforward answers. Only creative ones. Answers which poetry allows us to hear. To forge the space to imagine another reality. A move beyond resignation. This pamphlet is an attempt to offer one such answer. It parades a selection of work born out of I Am Not Who You Think I Am - a series of workshops held at East London’s Crisis Skylight centre led by the novelist Miranda Gold and New River Press. Since 2019 each Wednesday afternoon Crisis Members attend group workshops and one-to-one surgeries with established poets such as Katy Evans-Bush, Golnoosh Nour, and Joe Dunthorne. It has been phenomenal. This is a preview of a full length anthology to come. It is a celebration of I Am Not Who You Think I Am’s new poetry community - who have flourished on page and in performance over the past six months.
Two sample poems
Hope, The Immovable Dove - Peter Nathan
The glucose my soul digests
injecting me with an instant boost
a drip
releasing peace to me throughout my distress
polarising my focus to future plans and positive thoughts
filling the shopping cart of my mind with ideas, strategies, creativity,
alkaline visions and practical attainable realities
jelly beans of ecstasy
time release love
the harmless addiction, that never imprisons you with chains
the eye of the storm
hope draws you from the hurricane
and lays you down
in the apple of the wind’s eye
till it huffs and puffs and blows itself dead
and you arise in the sunshine
to present your treasures to the world.
Hushed - Ellen Jenkins
We are not supposed to talk.
Her, all chocolate fountain eyes and ringlets.
In the middle of a flame headed family.
Me an Infidel in her tribe’s eyes.
Her, all chocolate fountain eyes and ringlets.
No boundary wall exists in our minds.
Me an Infidel in her tribe’s eyes.
We don’t talk with our mouths.
No boundary wall exists in our minds.
She climbs into the awkward- to-reach seats.
We don’t talk with our mouths.
The only sound my laughter.
She climbs into the awkward-to-reach seats.
She stares at me curious, imp-like, flushed,
the only sound my laughter.
I love this warrior girl’s spirit.
She stares at me curious, imp-like, flushed.
Our prayers are different but only semantically.
I love this warrior girl’s spirit.
We all deep down, want to be free.
Our prayers are different but only semantically.
Maybe she sings, like me.
We all deep down, want to be free.
Maybe she makes up rhymes, like me.
Maybe she sings, like me.
There is no barbed wire between us.
Maybe she makes up rhymes, like me.
We cross the borders hushed.
There is no barbed wire between us.
In the middle of a flame headed family.
We cross the borders hushed.
We are not supposed to talk.