bravenet.comPoetry Group
Cyther is leading the group in poetry writing on Wednesday Afternoon at Community Advice Flat, 55a Plummer Road, Clapham Park Estate, SW4
Poetry Group
We hope to explore ways of writing poems, getting our work published and show casing our writing. We want to explore the minds of contemporary poets by reading there work and history. Being published on the web seems like a good way of exposing our work to a wider audience and showing a poet's range of work. In the future we would like to Pod-cast our work as there’s no substitute for hearing a poem spoken in the voice of the poet who wrote it.
- Expressive poetry class run by Cyther
People’s Poetry on National Poetry Day, October 6th 2005
Some of our Timebank memeber took part in the
People’s Poetry Event at The Poetry Society’s Poetry Café in Covent Garden on National Poetry Day, October 2005. the London Time Banks 2005 Poetry Project squeezed 45 poets into the basement performance area of the Poetry Cafe in Covent Garden. Despite cramped and hot conditions for both audience and performers, stellar performances followed in what was to be an inspirational and unforgetable evening for all who attended. After the first hour of introductions 67 poems ranging from the inspirational to the satirical were performed over the course of three hours from 5pm to 8pm by the participants from 10 London time banks.
Here are some of our Time bank memebers contributions
Jonathan Lilley
- Black History
Black History
It’s no mystery, Were all black indeed
Were weeds, Grow into trees
Brown roots, Brown body
Bear fruits, Sour or sweet
Poor prince, Into royal kings
Still black proud and sing
Are ancestors, Wisest farmers
Egyptians smartest builders, yramids deep thinkers
Black History ours, Solid believers I’m sure
Prophets with scriptures, Were teachers and dreamers
All insane, Partly as we use part brain
Believe in unseen almighty being, Black and sane
Fear not of pain, Everlasting after life our way
Righteous marvellous seeds and grain
Survived the longest hardest rain, Noah black man survivor
Mandela a leader, In jail still strong
Black freedom a must, In god we trust
Mandela, Malcolm X, Michael Jackson
Partly plastic, But fantastic,
We invented mathematics, Because of us cars are automatic
With our knowledge, Christopher Columbus
Taught people unlike us, To stop fuss
Beat on their wives and child’s, Stop acting wild
Sleeping with horses and dogs, No, no, no
Taught all how to cook, Write and read a book
Spell and even speak well, We changed barbarians to cave men
Friendlier, happier, Wiser and smarter
All this from Evangu black scripture, No picture black sisters
Strong mothers, Carried us brothers
Sang and gave us faith, Even as slaves
We prayed, For change
Were not black and dark, Were brown and deserve crowns
Through all the storms, We’ve been put in
Still its us that win, As we believe then see
Even when we can’t read or speak, Still our faith increase
Truly blessed our earth, We came from dirt
Left us in famine no clean shirt, But wait were straight
Brown love ourselves not vain, Proud forgive but cannot forget
Pain and suffering still don’t end, But we have a real friend
Who people don’t think help, But he’s set helps us not fret
Black history all positively, Were scientists, alchemists, gold makers
Economy rulers, Especially when we unite together
No power no mason stronger, Than us and our water
Our creator, Were black and favour our maker
In paradise forever, Because we’ve been made to suffer
Tested, tempted but were butter, Hard in the fridge
But in the sun melt softer, Yellow like summer hot lovers
Spring bloomers winter workers, Were not money lovers
Just forced to be money needers, So we can have shelters
Not greedy no cellars, 1 room all we need
Packed with 12 people, Big family black and tight
Help each other no big fight, Support father and mother
Were all sisters and brothers, Brown history month
Have you seen our black monk? Or black broth
Black is a colour dark, I’m not dark black or a shark
I’m brown like a branch, Brown with a capital B
Beautiful Bright Brave, Big Brain Best Ball
Boat Broke Believer, Bethlehem Beginner
Beat Brother, Boastful Brown Badger
Capital B Brown indeed
B for Box
R for Rule
O for Overflowing
W for Win
N for Nigga
With a it’s okay to say, We took the name
Loved the name, The power or curse taken away
From were proud fly high not shy, The majority of us don’t even lie
But cry for others with strife
B for Boldest
L for Longest
A for Amazing
C for Christ
K for Kings
That’s Black History
Jesus is why I sing
Believe the truth always gets revealed.
The pony’s live in a lovely fresh jungle.
They can’t be all the time with there mum like I do.
They are always with people because they have to be
taken care of like when we were babies they always have
to be held in little cages with string but people don’t know
that they can break it.
Ann Shine - Fruit parade
Fruits of all sizes, colours and flavours made to
measure to give us pleasure.
The young Children & me went
gobble gobble yum yum for the fruits to swallow
From the fruit on the vine
To the lychee from China
We all delved in haste
So as not to waste
These glorious fruits to taste
Fruits of all sizes, colours of flavours
Made by God for us to savour.
On National Poetry Day in October 2003 we launched the pan London Poetry Project. The aim of the poetry project was to bring time bank members together with experienced poets and writers in a creative workshop setting.--
Time Bank London produced two books in the first year of the project with funds from Carnegie UK Trust:
Angel Town Time bank is now dorment but still has link with Clapham Park Time Bank through Roz Macathy who now works at Clapham Park.
Angelltown’s Book of Poetry
London Time: Poetry from London’s time banks