For me performance poetry is a new and exciting concept. It is different than my other poetry. The two pieces that follow are the ones I did at my first Slam, back in February. The rant I had by heart, the one on death I read. I am working on two more performance poems now. The words in bold are to help you read it somewhat as I would have said it.
The Rant I
Want
I
want to walk arm in arm with you by the river in the autumn leaves
I
want to walk arm in arm with you
I
want you by
the river
I
want you in
the autumn leaves
I
want a different year without disappointment
I
want a different year
I
want a difference
I
want to scale your mountain of priorities and stand on top
I
want to scale the mountain
I
want new priorities
I want to
stand on top
I
want love to win over practicalities
I
want to overcome the practicalities
I want
love to win
I
want love
I
want you to love me more
I
want to love you more
I
want you to love me enough to come here where I am alone
I
want you to love me enough
I
want to love you enough to understand
I
want
to understand
I
want you to understand
I want you
to come here
where
I am alone by the river
I
want you to come here to my
mountains
I
want you to come
I
want you
Radha
introduction:
This is what happens in a romance where a long separation has just
got longer.
Frustration
and anger mount Neediness is the end result
Another
Death
Another
death on the hospital ward.
Death
is part of life. It's part of the job.
No
attachment. Professional detachment.
But
how do you detach a heart ?
This
one died quietly and alone.
The
curtains are pulled.
Loved
ones have been called.
I
ask to know when they arrive, so they don't go in alone.
But
work carries on just down the hall. The clock ticks on.
What
I don't understand is how the world keeps going
The
world should stop – at least for a moment
We
need time – time for respect
A
being has died, departed, gone ... from this world.
No
moment of silence or celebration of life
at
least not now.
The
clock ticks on. Work carries on.
No
prayers, No remembrance, No last respects
Just a
body to move.
An
empty bed on my team is what it will mean.
A
new client there by the end of my shift.
No
sign to say ... Somebody died here today
I
feel his presence remaining in the room
I
talk to his lifeless body
I talk
to Him
of his
courage in these last days, of his character, of the rest he has
earned..
We
move him gently zipped in a bag marked with his name.
A
cider a day can't hurt, I reason,
but it
might be a 2 cider night tonight, after THAT day.
She
was only my age and the look of pain in her partners eyes, I'll never
forget
his
incomprehension of what to do next
A
crack in my heart to join other cracks.
What
of MY heart? How much more can I take?
Even
so ,I am there to help the next family through.
They
stand stiff and awkward in the room.
Their
mother lies dying , beyond them now.
A
raspy breath No voice
Eyes
closed, focussed far off.
Put
down the siderail I say, sit close, hold her hand.
Say
what you need to. Hearing is last to go.
But I
need to leave them.
The clock ticks on.
Work carries on
Radha
