Alex will also be appearing on Sunday evening as part of Tongue In Chic’s second event at The Madcap Theatre, Wolverton, Milton Keynes. Doors open at 19.30, entry three pounds. The guest is the fabulous and totally unique Rachel Pantechnicon with Matthew Taylor (MMT) as featured local poet.

Campbell Park Hill

Click this text to hear Alex read this poem

Come if you will, come with me
and let us call out to nature
for our new beginning.
Let us walk carefully so we do
not step on the ants and crawling things
that live amongst the gravel until
we are at the crest of the big high hill
in the park.

Let us stretch our arms wide at the
edge of the drop and
turn our palms up towards the
blue sky so they catch the weight
of the sunshine and head back, eyes shut,
allow the beams to drip between our fingers.

Let the ancient soul trapped
within us scramble to the surface
and escape through our mouths
as we call out an old wordless song
to the valley and the little rivers below.

We shall feel the warm wind gently
tug at our hair and flick our collars
about us and mingle with our calling
voices so they are borne like kites
made of sound to the sheep in the far
fields and the dog-walking people who
lumber their sticks in arcs to their
lolloping furry companions.

In that moment we must close our eyes
tighter so we can let the glory of this
simple pleasure flush out the modernity
of us until we are once again
cavemen at Piltdown, hunters in the
rainforest and dust-covered people
who dig honey from bee’s nests with
a pointed stick.

Alex (a.k.a. Ian Barker) performed several times in December including The Poetry Kapow, The Tin Angel in Coventry and at the new HUGELY successful Tongue in Chic Poets launch night.  So successful have these events been in attracting talent that Alex only got to read a couple of poems at each gig.  (That’s a good thing – it means LOADS of people were fighting to perform and it’s about the poetry winning and being successful, not just about Alex getting more than his five minutes of fame).  I prefer to not hog the time, even though with over 200 poems I actually have enough material to go on for several hours.  At future Tongue in Chic gigs we’re going to restrict people a lot more so that the guest poet and featured poets get more time to do their thing.

I should point out that I’m the webmaster for the Tongue In Chic Poets website www.tongueinchicpoets.co.uk so I *could* be biased but it was a very successful night and we’re all waiting impatiently for the next one.

I will be performing at “Raising the Arwen” in Northampton on 21st January and at “From Bard to Verse” in Stony Stratford on 30th January.  Please come along.  If you think poetry is some sort of navel-gazing experience with dusty-jacketed boffs and nutcases you could be in for a surprise.  Take a look at the Tongue in Chic Gallery to see what I mean!

The sally song of the daytime birds
is smothered by the blackness.
A choking cover of hometime hours
are stifling their chirpy spirits.

A crispening chill seeps through the air
accompanying the darkness.
Collared coats, scarves and hats,
boots and thermal undies.

Knifelike drops of painful rain
begin to stab my forehead
and heap salty pain into my eyes
to underline the season.

The splashing sounds car tyres make;
their wooshing, swooshing, spinning
are comforting but emphasise the
dreary winter timing.

A thousand builders, a million cars
built with beauty from bricks and sand
Welcome to my city

Multi coloured with a hundred tongues
we’re criticized but we’re so much more and -
it’s not just about the concrete cows

We vault the heights of consumer fashion
our citizens set trends, you shop to drop
Welcome to my city

Our h’s and v’s, our transport passion;
beware the roundabouts coz we don’t stop!
It’s not just about the concrete cows

So leave the grids and see our parks
our canals, our lakes, our open space
Welcome to my city -
It’s not just about the concrete cows.