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The Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Group – more opportunities for poetry
“So much depends . . .”
The Red Wheelbarrow was launched in January 2021 with a view to providing opportunities for poets, and those who love poetry, to meet and read. Our aim is to provide an inclusive platform for poets from diverse traditions, and at different levels of experience.
We host weekly Zoom readings every Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Evenings consist of a reading by a featured poet, usually lasting for between 30-40 minutes, followed by a Q&A session, a short break, and then an open-mic session, in which anyone who’s ‘tuned in’ to hear the featured poet is welcome to read from their own poetry or from the work of another poet.
We also host in-person readings in Cape Town on the first and third Wednesdays of every month. These readings begin at 7 p.m. and follow the same format as the Zoom readings. Readings currently take place in Bertha House in Mowbray (on the first Wednesday of the month) and in Tokai Library (on the third Wednesday of the month).
Information about our readings is made available via our weekly circular, as well as our Facebook and Instagram pages:
https://www.facebook.com/theredwheelbarrowpoetry
https://www.instagram.com/redwheelbarrowpoetry/
An archive of our Zoom readings can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/@redwheelbarrowpoetry/videos
We hope that you can join us in these adventures, and that we can continue to provide poets with a vibrant space in which to share their poetry.
Yours in poetry,
Eduard Burle, Sindiswa Busuku, Jacques Coetzee, Kirsten Deane, Lisa Julie, Nondwe Mpuma, Melissa Sussens
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Suggested resources
https://www.facebook.com/otwpoetry
https://poetryinmcgregor.co.za/
https://stanzaspoetry.org/
https://www.ru.ac.za/isea/publications/journals/newcoinpoetry/
https://www.newcontrast.net/
https://www.afsun.co.za/product-category/books/
https://www.facebook.com/deepsouthpublishingco/
http://uhlangapress.co.za/
https://karavanpress.com/karavan-press/
https://dryadpress.co.za/
https://www.modjajibooks.co.za/
http://www.echoinggreenpress.com/
https://www.liferighting.com/
https://johannesburgreviewofbooks.com/topics/poetry/
http://danwyliecriticaldiaries.blogspot.com/
https://www.litnet.co.za/
https://www.africanpoetryprize.org/
https://dyehardinterviews.blogspot.com/
http://dyehard-press.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1212939945859233
https://clarkesbooks.co.za/
https://booklounge.co.za/
https://www.facebook.com/exclusivebookscavendish/
https://www.facebook.com/Kalk-Bay-Books-184457614746/
https://blankbooks.co.za/stores
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Finally she had to leave him for the night.
She left him in the hospital with
her love
the cancer diagnosis
some fruit
And he sent back a message
thank you
the pear
so delicious.
Featured at The Red Wheelbarrow with the Life Riting Collective on 21 July 2022
Tonight, without a breath of warning
I cross the flight path of an owl
frozen in the windscreen's frame.
A glimpse of creamy wings arced wide across the draining sky
their freckled undersides rich, soft-feathered
supping the airstream's lift.
It rises, then is gone
to some street perching.
I don't look back – I'm driving.
The intimacy
that cushioned body
soft-feathered trajectory
recalls the early hours, when wakened by its lucid cry above the reeded ceiling
with whispered reverence my own mate’s voice
– the owl –
always singular
although from some perimeter roost
its mate replies.
Dense velvet darkness draws me closer to his softening body
as sleep resumes.
I tilt my head to hear the owl more clearly
to sense his breathing at my ear.
Featured at The Red Wheelbarrow with the Life Riting Collective on 21 July 2022
I Am a Leaking Bottle
I am a leaking bottle
I tell her
I am decorated with holes and cracks
Life broke me
Filling up seems futile
Joy quickly seeps through me
I tell her
You are a watering can
She says
Where does the water that seeps through you go
What happens when sadness comes
She asks
I would rather be a dam
That is full to the brim
I tell her
Are dams not man-made
She asks
Wouldn’t you rather be a river
Fresh water passing through you
To others
She asks
Wouldn’t you rather be in communion
I constantly need patching up
I am a rainbow of patchwork
I tell her
Don’t people point in wonder at rainbows
She asks
But these cracks hurt
I tell her
But is that not our magic
That we feel so much
She asks
Featured at The Red Wheelbarrow with the Life Riting Collective on 21 July 2022