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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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Brendan McCormack
when you are alone and no one knows the quiet words
that are in your head
and you believe that all is lost
and that no one will ever hold your hand again
or listen to your voice
or kiss your lips
or whisper love in your ear
and the beach stretches cold for miles and miles
and the loneliness is an axe in your soul
come read, come read, i too am there.
Featured on 26 August 2021
Mxolisi Nyezwa
don’t ask me about any of my poems
for i will tell you that people are murdered in my country
and their deaths arrive slowly as an illness
as a desolate knock
on a blank sky
I wear my shoes in the morning like i’m in a hurry for something
the tea-cup rests on the table, its shadow long and tapering
everywhere the fruit gives golden or red sulphur
what has become of us?
what has become of us?
Featured on 19 August 2021
Sue Woodward
arriving in good time not believing my luck if i could get this part it would be the break of a lifetime a sidekick leads me over thick grass to a river bank an umbrella a lounger champagne in an ice bucket one glass he fills the glass i settle on the lounger sip on popping bubbles in dry heat like the karoo in a drought my body under an electric blanket my cheeks flushed with the champagne the heat prickles of sweat dotting my neck i sip watch the condensation on the bucket drip onto the grass he fills the glass i wait i sip the air rising in vertical hazy waves i am melting into the lounger the lounger creaks a heavier weight covers my body a feather boa around my neck feathers brushing my cheek my ear nibbled i can’t breathe can’t move with the weight my arms pinioned a stink of slime and underwater murk a bass drum beating on my chest in my chest a small tapping to get out my breaths shallow so faint they stop before i die they kick start i am breathing the heaviness slides to one side the weight is gone the sidekick appears we’ll let you know and shows me out
Many writers of Greek mythology have told the story of Zeus’ rape of Leda. Zeus desired the beautiful Leda, and in order to seduce her changed himself into a swan. After the rape, Leda slept with her own husband, Tyndareus, the King of Sparta. The two encounters resulted in two fertilised eggs, each with a set of twins, Helen (of Troy) and Pollux, and Castor and Clytemnestra.
I have given the scene of the rape a contemporary setting based on allegations from within the #metoo movement.
Poem originally published in New Coin (December 2019) and in ‘between the apple and the bite’ (Modjaji 2021)
Featured on 12 August 2021