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Naomi Woddis
Featured Poet in August 2008 Issue
Naomi Woddis is a
poet and performer, promoter and blogger. She has recently published a pamphlet
‘Life is Music’ to much acclaim. Her innovative online invention Poetry Mosaic
is gaining in international popularity. She is also a regular contributor to the
online spoken word information reservoir Metaroar.com.
This Life Can Kill You
Someone has died, you did not know him well
but the man is your friend's father,
It gets you thinking about all that he told you.
What does it all add up to ?
An angry man spat his virus
of mean words on to his wife.
In the ring, a boxer said
is where the addiction starts.
You get to feel so powerful.
I just like to fight, I came from fighting
You think of your friend driving to the funeral
in the falling rain, how all the times
he just wanted his dad to die,
to stop punching him,
just to fucking leave me alone,
for fucks sake. Nothing
is ever as easy as closing a door
and leaving it closed. The last time
you see them alive pray you know
it's the last, that you say goodbye,
and take them in their battered
unfinished form
away with you forever.
Go Up
Dandelion
I watched a tiny woman
breathe in to a white balloon,
her voice sharp as a pencil.
Put your worries here
she said and blow.
Blow your sad love away
across the London rooftops,
in to the big sky that hangs
over car parks, schools
and football stadiums.
Let each letter of your name
fill this latex bubble.
My cells are still smudged
by the cruelty in his voice,
the indelible thought of him.
I watched my disappointment
float upwards, waiting
for just one bubble to burst.
Go Up
Blind Light
in response to the work of the same name by Anthony Gormley
We watched our breath
the damp mist charming, feet
skidding on the cold ground.
A cloud isolated us in
its soft smudged grip;
our world ending at the edge
of the playground, just feet away.
Years later an artist made a box
of cold wet fog. We rushed in
to hide from the edge again,
the end of the universe steps
from where we stood
safe in the maze of thick
kissing air, in the handhold
of the unforgotten.
Go Up
How You Cried
How you cried but did not let it,
did not want it to show.
People in your father's country
are killing for a name on a map.
You carry pictures of your sons
on your phone and in your wallet
for all to see. But nothing
can protect you from this.
Not even your love as vast
as the continents of space
it’s darkness beautiful
and overwhelming.
Strangers with your name are dying.
The sky, the unforgettable
smiles on your two life-filled boys
will not save you.
Part of you is now falling
in to the impossibility of night.
Time eats your days;
you can never go back.
Go Up
Maman
For Louise Bourgeois
In your 19th century chateau
you watched your mother
weave her decline.
Your father's love for a governess
made a punch in you
to last a lifetime.
Your thick small
heavy working hands
making legends,
tell the story
of nature in resin,
nails, twine and cloth.
Pink bandaged faces yell,
muted by stuffing.
A wooden totem is softened
by upholstery. Finally
you show us mother love
as the spider's 8-legged claw.
Like you
we cower under her,
tilt our child's faces upwards,
motherward and afraid,
full of awe
and love.
Copyrights @ Naomi Woddis 2008
Go Up
The hothouse - dedicated to celebrating
female creativity across all art forms
The Hothouse launch event will take place at the Cross Kings, 126 York Way
London N1 on the 30th September 2008 and will raise funds for Inspired Word, a
voluntary organisation (registered charity status pending) providing creative
writing and self development courses for women in a safe space
The launch event will feature some of London's best female performers including
Zena Edwards, Heather Taylor, Patricia Foster, Malika Booker, Aoife Mannix,
Karen McCarthy, Jaqueline Saphra, Dzifa Benson, Esther Poyer, Annette Walker,
Agnes Meadows, Naomi Woddis, Jasmine Cooray, Janett Plummer, Esther Poyer and
Sara-Mae Tuson.
Go Up
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