Vincent Berquez: Four Poems

V i n c e n t   B e r q u e z

 F o u r   P o e m s

Dancing into the cream of the night

 

You said take me dancing

in the cream of the night

like we did that time

when the music was jasper Spanish.

The seated flamenco women clapped

out the velocity of chattering rhythms

pushing the black and scarlet music

to the edge of our half-conscious world,

exciting the bloody pump with the drum

of temptation that agitated our lustiness.

The partnership of limbs tangled

loquacious, heady, demanding.

We took to the slippery dance floor

where I held the spine of your wet skin

in the stretch of my flexed palm –

you said your heart needed to dance with me

until the silver slit cracked into the shock

of the smoky grey marbled morning.

In charged anarchy we succumbed

to fog drunkenly and lost ourselves till then.

 

Bombing the Plain English Society

I shall keep you here in the electrons of my mind,

the swirling passages of these unending nerve ends.

I will be the bristling brush on the flesh of a rapid red fox,

the squaring of roots drowning in complex mathematics,

the astro-lunacy of a blinking boffin’s crazed chalk jottings

scratched frantically on a worn-out university blackboard.

I would be a Fascist treading in the shine of marching jackboots

towards the blinding zealous pursuit of your affections,

the deepest diver plunging for shellfish in dangerous waters,

the oxygen breathing spaceman sucked into the inky darkness

of twinkling night in the want of the unknown knowledge of you.

I shall be the unfettered wild horse galloping far and wide

towards you, towards the savage and the need beyond exhaustion.

I would bomb the Plain English Society in search of obscure words

to cover you, plundering rich language I would describe abundantly.

I would forfeit rich chocolate and red wine to taste you instead,

sleep on stones of fire nightly for a chance to lie next to you,

with my flame burning brightly I will illuminate you in my heat.

 

Writing words of love to the sea

I write words of love to the sea

my mistress so far from me here

in the grey light and night of the city.

I write words of passion for the waves

that lap my skin when close

that makes me come alive when I think

of her and take a path to her blanket.

I write a passion for the great emptiness

of my desire when away

for the solitude of when we are together,

when I glide deep inside her

and only come up for air when it is almost too late.

Sleep touching

Enchanted, our mime snake-like,

entwined, wrapped in each other,

a limbed garland, a drowsy choice

where no obvious choice is made.

Our sighing bodies entranced,

meshing, threading smoothly,

covering velvet soft, satin warm.

We touch without touching,

no fingers or lips or eyes

come into knowing contact –

We purr a murmur and our skin

dusts the other’s skin gently.

We are languid as we wake

again to the light of the world,

to the animation of the day.

And in our strokes we begin

to touch differently

realising each other is near.

Vincent Berquez Biography

Vincent Berquez is a London–based artist and poet. He has published in Britain, Europe, America and New Zealand. His work is in many anthologies, collections and magazine worldwide. Vincent Berquez was requested to write a Tribute as part of ‘Poems to the American People’ for the Hastings International Poetry Festival for 9/11, read by the mayor of New York at the podium. He has also been commissioned to write a eulogy by the son of Chief Albert Nwanzi Okoluko, the Ogimma Obi of Ogwashi-Uku to commemorate the death of his father. Berquez has been a judge many times, including for Manifold Magazine and had work read as part of Manifold Voices at Waltham Abbey. He has recited many times, including at The Troubadour and the Pitshanger Poets, in London. In 2006 his name was put forward with the Forward Prize for Literature. He recently was awarded a prize with Decanto Magazine. Berquez is now a member of London Voices who meet monthly in London, United Kingdom.

Vincent Berquez has also been collaborating in 07/08 with a Scottish composer and US film maker to produce a song-cycle of seven of his poems for mezzo-soprano and solo piano. These are being recorded at the Royal College of Music under the directorship of the concert pianist, Julian Jacobson. In 2009 he will be contributing 5 poems for the latest edition of A Generation Defining Itself, as well as 3 poems for Eleftheria Lialios’s forthcoming book on wax dolls published in Chicago. He also made poetry films that have been shown at various venues, including a Polish/British festival in London, Jan 07.

As an artist Vincent Berquez has exhibited world wide, winning prizes, such as at the Novum Comum 88’ Competition in Como, Italy. He has worked with an art’s group, called Eins von Hundert, from Cologne, Germany for over 16 years. He has shown his work at the Institute of Art in Chicago, US, as well as many galleries and institutions worldwide. Berquez recently showed his paintings at the Lambs Conduit Festival, took part in a group show called Gazing on Salvation, reciting his poetry for Lent and exhibiting paintings/collages. In October he had a one-man show at Sacred Spaces Gallery with his Christian collages in 2007. In 2008 Vincent Berquez also had a solo show of paintings at The Foundlings Museum. His artwork is permanently on view at the Enid Lawson Gallery in London.

KEMP=MAG poetry magazine – magazine for art & literature

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