senryu

texting her friend
about her swimming lesson -
she strokes her guide dog.

for NaPoWriMo.

***

And a reminder that the pdf of an updated version of my chapbook Bougainvillea Dancing is now available to buy in the Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop. 10% of proceeds from the sale of this book go to VSO for their work in Malawi and other parts of southern Africa.

As ever, coloured text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.  

Bougainvillea Dancing now available to download

I taught sciences in Malawi between 1990 - 1992 as a VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) volunteer. My first poetry pamphlet Bougainvillea Dancing, published 2002, raised money for charities working in Malawi. The original pamphlet is sold out now, but I was delighted that Chris Crittenden  reviewed it recently on Owl Who Laughs.

Most of the poems in Bougainvillea Dancing focussed on Africa, but many of them were unrelated to that continent. I've just put together an updated version of the pamphlet, removing all the poems unrelated to Africa and adding in more poems on African topics, plus a couple of prose pieces and some photos. This is now available as a pdf to download from the Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop.

(If you don't want to shop via Etsy there are two alternative ways to pay for a copy of this book:

a) via Paypal

b) by cheque if you're in the UK.

Please email me on juliet.m.wilsonATgmailDOTcom for details.

10% of proceeds from this publication will go to VSO for their work in Africa. 

VSO’s programme in Malawi concentrates on HIV and AIDS, health and social wellbeing, secure livelihoods (food security) and education in seven rural and remote districts. The districts were chosen due to their excessive poverty levels, high prevalence of HIV and AIDS, and low involvement of other international charities.

senryu from a nightclub

hurting my feet
as soon as I sit down -
new dancing shoes

***

the man in a dress
dances in stiletto heels
better than I could

***

on the dancefloor -
a couple make not speaking
into an art form

***
strobe lights
in the underground nightclub -
my nettle stung arm

***


for NaPoWriMo
 

Edinburgh Castle in the Mist

Women's Work

after Jomwa Phiri

This woman will always be stirring nsima*
over a fire beneath a baobab tree
dark against a sunset sky.

Knees slightly bent, these women will forever
carry pots to and from the water well
and keep the well wheel turning.

But except the woman drinking with the men

these women move through these crowds
alone.

I remember such scenes being loud with laughter
but the artist reveals the loneliness
beneath the bright colours.



* nsima = maize porridge

For NaPoWriMo - early bird prompt - ekphrastic poetry

Jomwa Phiri is a well known Malawian painter, who I met when I lived in Malawi. We have several of his paintings round our flat and recently I discovered several more, hidden away in a drawer, one of which is now in the Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop, the others I'm going to frame and find wall space for.