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Vincent Berquez painting ©: Japanese River
Vincent Berquez is a London–based artist and poet
fleursdumal.nl magazine for art & literature
More in: Berquez, Vincent, FDM Art Gallery, Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez©: Drawing Nr. 18
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 had a solo show of paintings at The Foundlings Museum and in 2011 an exposition with new work in Langham Gallery London.
fleursdumal.nl magazine for art & literature
More in: Berquez, Vincent, FDM Art Gallery, Vincent Berquez
Sibelius
Sibelius symphony number eight
On his lips he sounded natures
cry, natures sinewy sigh
and gripped in encapsulation
its voices in dots and dashes.
His work swept the oceans
searching for ringing melodies,
the cosmos dancing in rhythm
through its internal magnetism.
Sounds from the milky way
readily formed within him,
carbon from the core twinkling,
vibrating, the many strings flying
in rich tones, in its resurrection
when death looked imminent
awoke when barely conscious.
He took the new and ancient
and slanted the nucleus
of his vivid expression
into the pool of swirling
existence.
And when the structure
was created,
when the monument was built,
the music gasping for
the air of existence,
for the universe to burst
he burnt the lot
and fell inward, into silence,
where his voice lived only
for his wife and children.
He sat down quietly
and never again lifted
his psyche to varnish sound
with brilliant shimmers.
21.09.07
Vincent Berquez
Poem: Sibelius
Vincent Berquez is a London–based artist and poet
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive A-B, Berquez, Vincent, MUSIC, Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez©: Cat in dusk
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 had a solo show of paintings at The Foundlings Museum and in 2011 an exposition with new work in Langham Gallery London.
fleursdumal.nl magazine for art & literature
More in: Berquez, Vincent, FDM Art Gallery, Natural history, Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez©: Fishermen
Vincent Berquez is a London–based artist and poet
fleursdumal.nl magazine for art & literature
More in: Berquez, Vincent, FDM Art Gallery, Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez©: Drawing Nr. 21
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 had a solo show of paintings at The Foundlings Museum and in 2011 an exposition with new work in Langham Gallery London.
fleursdumal.nl magazine for art & literature
More in: Berquez, Vincent, FDM Art Gallery, Vincent Berquez
Klaus Schmidt’s discovery
His lifetime work discovered him in the dust of Turkey,
the lifeline linked his work from now on until his end.
The wedding night of civilisation is his quoted words.
Carvings muted utter silences and revealed themselves.
Why waste time with this profit unto the wasted land
creeping overall the flickering darkness inhabiting us?
Man’s noises removed, the sand drenched and camouflaged
taking away in its grains the self-importance of all before.
But in the over awing wonders of politics and time’s line
the superstitious crept in niggling fear of what was not know
and gazed at him wrought in stone in the super-natural;
before the ox pulled wood to cut and plough,
before deserts, before we ourselves knew nothing still.
Numbers and letters farmed us as well
and now we have grown tall and proud in ourselves.
The sand spewed over the circles of carvings and settled.
We seek crumbs of proof if proof is needed of ourselves.
20.04.08
Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez is a London–based artist and poet
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive A-B, Berquez, Vincent, Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez©: Sunset Beach
Vincent Berquez is a London–based artist and poet
fleursdumal.nl magazine for art & literature
More in: Berquez, Vincent, FDM Art Gallery, Vincent Berquez
Silence with Peter Porter
We met briefly in an Edwardian hall
but I can’t remember which one.
I do remember I recited
and so did you, but you did so
like there was a hush in sound
without the necessary noise
polluting the voice of your words.
London was varnished with rain
and the audience were wet with
guilt at the disappointment
of an unruly climate outside
that pissed all over them.
The stark-birth of your words
were not counted by charismatic bullets,
I thought you a little boring
protected in the flat-jacket
of your reputation, how stupid of me.
I noticed a silence encircling you
and your eyes met mine
and yours couldn’t be acquired
by anything or anyone at any cost.
Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez is a London–based artist and poet
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive A-B, Berquez, Vincent, Vincent Berquez
Picasso’s bicycle
The clutter was busy with itself,
dusty, rusty bits of calloused iron
struggled in the dinosaur maxim
of becoming dead skeletons
at the end of a so-so utilitarian life.
The effeminate ballroom
was not far behind, peeling
paint and whimpering plaster
on stained alabaster flooring,
the dream of luxury expiring.
The ghost of a danced waltz
in a Fin de Siècle stench spewed
to the vibration of tuneless strings.
Cobweb filled champagne bottles
sipped by drunk working class guests,
parched their sandy mouths thirsty.
The dirt filled the building slowly
travelling illegally on the back
of the Sirocco from the Levant
to leave an arid skin on every surface.
The walls bleached and blistered,
the fascias cracked and crumbled,
the Republic surrendered easily
to the upstart Spaniard’s charms
and chivvied slices of glory for him
in the ruined hypocrisy of its noblesse.
His work attested to a fall in standards
in slices of past glory, all ideas stolen
by the old devil’s goat-like desires.
The scrapyard sniggered in contempt
at the old fool, and the camera stared.
03.02.11
Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez is a London–based artist and poet
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive A-B, Berquez, Vincent, Pablo Picasso, Vincent Berquez
Mr. V. Van Gogh last painting
He was super ill, the paint slivered and writhed
bad blood worms on rough canvas slicing
his brain out of deflecting eyes, nail-bitten fingers.
From in the curly mind, out of black chemistry
and dodgy pharmacy, a loaded sharp tongue
despaired, slammed a miserable self-realization
of the road’s inadequacy, of the dissatisfaction,
of skittish skills, the ongoing failure with women.
From loathing, the dust of crumbling charcoal
and blunting pencil, the mass rank alcohol drank,
the acrid cigarettes, bad behaviour with friends,
family, his failure, the verdict of good judgement
just left him with an empty chair far from home.
The analysis of the doctors, the screech of trees,
the tar-coloured crows beating their deathly wings.
He could no longer see the actual investment
away from a loaded pistol. The experiment of death
won battles over him and followed too closely.
The canvas could not fill life when the sun shone hard,
the colours chattered, which was unbelievable but true.
He often left his charnel house lamenting with flowers
with pity, with the irony of the age to come, with freedom
he never had, the love he could not sustain.
The hue turned darker, blacker and then he was no more.
07.10.08
Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez is a London–based artist and poet
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive A-B, Berquez, Vincent, Vincent Berquez, Vincent van Gogh
Rosa Parks
She told a big white man
a big no right in his face.
Nose to nose and quite scary
as if a lynching could result.
She didn’t flinch and said
she could’ve
and should’ve
be able to do this
one easy thing that day.
There she sat, little and grand,
and although she was the first
to sit on a bus in the white seats
she was bayed at as if this symbol
was like rejecting the public stocks.
This small piece of America
became everything,
a wave began and was unstoppable.
I don’t know much else about all this
but I am interested in my liberty.
She could have said it like that.
21.03.04
Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez is a London–based artist and poet
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive A-B, Berquez, Vincent, Vincent Berquez
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