Monday 23 September 2019

Breakfast in Bed

I am tempted today to invite people to come and enjoy ‘Breakfast in Bed’ with me, but I’m not that bold, although some of the poems in my new book are quite bold – and I will be reading some of them out at various events over the next few months.


I’m delighted that my second poetry collection, ‘Breakfast in Bed’ is published today by Indigo Dreams Publishing.


The first poem in the book (see below) invites the reader to spend an hour or so adrift …  contemplating and reflecting on many ideas and feelings around the idea of ‘love’.


This is from the back cover:

‘Love arrives in an array of flavours, scents and colours. Taste it in food and nature: in honey, ice-cream-sundae, salt of the sea, fresh ripe strawberries.  Explore the love of a small child for her parents, a mother for a lost baby, a family for their father. Romance and eroticism, love for self, feelings encountered when love is lost, withheld or twisted are here to experience too.’



For more information about the book, including generous endorsements from writing colleagues Maggie Harris and Kaite O’Reilly, see the publisher’s website: https://www.indigodreams.co.uk/jackie-biggs/4594692749

Copies are available mail order from them, or direct from me at readings.  My main launch event is on Wednesday, October 16th, at The Cellar Bar, Cardigan SA43 1HU. 7.30pm to 9pm. Free entry and delicious nibbles. All welcome.



The new collection begins:



Alone and together



A city that snares

slow rhythms

(Federico Garcia Lorca)



A river flows through

afternoon’s slow heat,

Lorca’s pace



                (together and alone

                juntos y solo)



babble at café tables

rises and drops into shadow

by the waterside



sun falls through trees,

the flicker of fresh leaves

in green spring



                (solo y juntos

                alone and together)



wine is red, time is yellow

the rhythm of the river is ours

for this hour adrift


Saturday 7 September 2019

Poem for Mark

We've lost a few good friends recently. This one was especially shocking and sad. Actor, director, poet and performer Mark Montinaro died on August 2nd, aged only 59. A tragic loss. His many friends and lovely family read poetry and tributes to Mark at the wake at the Dylan Thomas Boathouse in Laugharne, where he had performed so many of Thomas's pieces to critical acclaim. As I listened the words for my own tribute to Mark began to come. This is the poem I wrote afterwards.


Moments

i.m Mark Montinaro

We sat easy in the chairs in the parlour
of Dylan’s old Boathouse home
one summer Saturday
as the sea slid dark over the reaching sands below.
We chatted our comfy evening away
talking poetry, forms and frailties
and rhythm, assonance and rhyme,

just Jonathan, you, Dave and me.
And we met on my winter birthday walk
in the puddled street  beneath the Castle wall
on a dreek and windy weekday afternoon;
and again we chinwagged poetry
while rain plastered hair to our faces
and stung our eyes.

Your words rang out many nights
in the Cellar Bar, your voice large and full
to the corners of the blackdowned room.
You travelled all the way to Aberystwyth
to support our Rockhopper set on ‘time’,
and even again we prattled on poetry
and performance skills over coffee in the Arts Centre  bar;

and at our gig on Spoken Word Saturday
you were pleased to introduce me to your lovely Mam,
so proud, you and her, both together.
Now you are gone, so fast and so soon
and I listen to poets read their words about you
from the time-honoured Boathouse steps
and even more     your mother’s face

shows her pride in you.
And over and under all their voices
I hear oystercatchers keening
and curlews calling the tide
as the waters spill over
and fill the foreshore of this timeless
limitless bay.