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Who told who what
Theo told Guy and Guy told Declan
and Declan told Anne who told me
you were dead.
I told your ex-Chloe
and Chloe told your mother.
Jamie, your brother was told by Anne.
Philippa, your social worker already
knew for two days but told no one,
we had to find out from each other.
Jamie spoke to your mother
and your brothers and sister.
I told other friends who told me
they would come to your funeral.
The Crisis centre said they couldn’t talk to me
due to the Data Protection Act.
I couldn’t confirm any of the stories I was told.
The centre said they would get in touch
with me after checking who I was, but didn’t.
I was still waiting when I knew you had died.
Vincent Berquez
Poem: Who told who what
Vincent Berquez is a London–based artist and poet
• fleursdumal.nl magazine
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The Norwegian mother
She walks thinly along the narrow road
back to the school, as I walk towards her.
We stop and talk. She tells me that her
Illness has spread to her head. Her hand
radars around her face grimly.
What can you do? You carry on as you do
when you have three young children
who need your care. My family in Norway
are no help, nor is my husband’s here.
He has given up work to care for the kids.
Who cares for you? I ask.
Have you a good community around you?
The women of the mosque come round
with food every day.
They feed my husband and the family.
You carry on and don’t think about the future.
She looks at her watch. I apologise for taking up
her time. There is a recorder concert, she grins,
and presses ears in pretence of pain as she walks on.
Vincent Berquez
Poem: The Norwegian mother
Vincent Berquez is a London–based artist and poet
• fleursdumal.nl magazine
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The art of divisibility
She wants my time
but not in rows of measures
or in the control of mathematics
but in the hidden measurements
of being together, of feeling
without addition or subtraction.
Having someone’s space in time
is all that can be truly given freely.
When we adjust so time does,
as we shift to the warmth of company,
which is what can be said
for these moments of value
to be understood as precious.
We control time and divide it into two,
an equal share for both of us, as we
become living geometry and curve
around each other’s cogent and form.
Vincent Berquez
Poem: The art of divisibility
Vincent Berquez is a London–based artist and poet
• fleursdumal.nl magazine
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Shards of colours
I paint the world in the wet,
in colours mixed with liquid light,
and like tears of love, reality emerges
and seals itself therein.
The dormant awakes everywhere,
in my silence, in my journey,
and like the joy of happiness,
truth emerges and beauty stands.
An empty space in the universe
offers itself up to the feast before it.
Colours as miracles, drops of God’s
love for the immensity before us all.
I wash my hands after the day’s work,
the colours trickle from my fingers
like fish with sacred wings, I am given
these tiny shards of shimmering miracles,
and then when I wake the following day,
to my surprise, I find small traces remain
to remind me to rejoice in them again.
Vincent Berquez
Poem: Shards of colours
Vincent Berquez is a London–based artist and poet
• fleursdumal.nl magazine
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Always the coolest of doorway
It wasn’t necessarily the best of times
or the best of me, the best of wines
or the best of you, the warmest of nights,
the brightest of moon, the nicest of streets,
the trendiest of bars in the smart part of town.
We didn’t have the cleverest of talks,
sit at the best of tables, with the cleanest of napkins.
My pockets weren’t the fullest, as the moths attested.
I wasn’t at my wealthiest, or my smartest,
or wearing the shiniest shoes with the strongest of laces,
chewing with the whitest of teeth in the kindest of moods.
We certainly weren’t coy about our agenda that night.
It wasn’t as if I didn’t know you or I didn’t want you,
or I wouldn’t try or hadn’t had; I wanted what I wanted
and slowly the alcohol took hold and awoke the desiring,
and you could’ve imagined a better seduction,
as the night could’ve been the dullest ever
without wanting to or trying the making of love to you.
But wasn’t the moon the fullest, and weren’t we the closest,
didn’t we feel the passion and violence of the kissing, the biting,
struggling in a moment of an explosive erotic experience.
Didn’t we search for privacy in the dirty streets that night?
Weren’t we two bellyfuls of red wine in the emptying city,
swaggering and swollen, swaying in a London doorway,
hidden from the pace of hectic pedestrians.
Hadn’t we become the most romantic of couples
in our boozy, breathy pairing, as we locked tight together
and vanished completely in a haze of shaky memories that night.
Vincent Berquez
Always the coolest of doorway
• fleursdumal.nl magazine
Photo: VB – The artist and his son
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An evening of poetry and art with celebrated local author Vincent Berquez.
Vincent Berquez is an Anglo-French Balham based artist and poet. He has exhibited his artwork worldwide and is published in Britain, Europe, America and New Zealand.
Vincent will be reading from his latest book, ‘The Sound of Blossom Falling’.
Thu, 15 September 2022
19:00 – 21:00 BST
Location
Balham Library
16 Ramsden Road
London
SW12 8QY
United Kingdom
more information on website:
https://allevents.in/london/meet-author-and-artist-vincent-berquez/10000394228948397
• fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: #Editors Choice Archiv, - Book Lovers, Archive A-B, Archive A-B, Berquez, Vincent, FDM in London, Literary Events, Vincent Berquez
Delight
I’ve been delighting in your face
since the Eureka mess of our embrace,
the cork of fizzing kissing taken place,
the sexual notation of blushing staves,
a lust-compass flashing up radar blips.
Sloppy corners, edges in melted clips
of our manic laughter, on risky ships,
in the city’s darkness and muddy trips,
naked tangles on private sandy strips,
isolated scrub lands and forest bits,
disused canal tunnel with freezing tits,
stopping the car in shadowy lay-bys,
alleyways, echoing blissed-out cries,
she delighted, ripping open my flies.
And through our lustiness a miracle came,
the pneumatic forces created the near-same,
through the acrobatic propagated struggle
in the hospital you pushed out of the bubble
when we saw you delight in your life force.
Now we are celebrating the main course
of us all together, as a loving source,
of the wonderful blended mix,
of our delight, our scented lives transfixed
we have built the home as well as the bricks.
Vincent Berquez
Delight
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 magazines worldwide (f.i. fleursdumal.nl).
# new book of poetry by Vincent Berquez:
The Sound of Blossom Falling
Author: Vincent Berquez
Paperback
Language: English
86 pages
Publisher: Cyberwit.net
2021
ISBN-10: 9390601096
ISBN-13: 978-9390601097
£10.89
• fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: #Editors Choice Archiv, Archive A-B, Archive A-B, Art & Literature News, Berquez, Vincent, Vincent Berquez
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.
Vincent Berquez
Dancing into the cream of the night
# 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 magazines worldwide (f.i. fleursdumal.nl).
# new book of poetry by Vincent Berquez:
The Sound of Blossom Falling
Author: Vincent Berquez
Paperback
Language: English
86 pages
Publisher: Cyberwit.net
2021
ISBN-10: 9390601096
ISBN-13: 978-9390601097
£10.89
• fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: #Editors Choice Archiv, Archive A-B, Art & Literature News, Berquez, Vincent, Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez is a poet and artist, living in London with his wife and son. He was born to French parents and attended the French Lycée and Cannock boarding school.
Berquez studied Fine Art at Goldsmith’s; followed by The Camden Institute, where he was taught by Frank Auerbach.
He worked as an artist for many years prior to studying museology and conservation at London University following which he worked as a curator and conserver at various institutions, including the British Museum, and the Louvre.
Berquez 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 an eulogy by the son of Chief Albert Nwanzi Okoluko, the Ogimma Obi of Ogwashi-Uku to commemorate the death of his father.
Vincent 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. Recently he was awarded a prize with Decanto Magazine. Berquez is now a member of London Voices who meet monthly in London, U.K
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 contributed 5 poems for the edition of A Generation Defining Itself, as well as 3 poems for Eleftheria Lialios’s 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 also worked with an art’s group, called Eins von Hundert, from Cologne, Germany for over 16 years. Berquez has shown his work at the Institute of Art in Chicago, US, as well as many galleries and institutions worldwide.
Recently he showed his paintings at the Lambs Conduit Festival, he took part in a group show called Gazing on Salvation, reciting his poetry for Lent and exhibiting paintings/collages.
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.
Vincent Berquez has published regularly in fleursdumal.nl magazine for many years.
His book of poetry, called: The Sound of Blossom Falling, was recently published by CyberWit in London.
“The main point about these poems is deep emotion and concrete theme. We notice very impressive ardour of imagination in these poem.”
The Sound of Blossom falling
He talks of her with the simple love of a father,
describing how they walked the verdant path
and along the softness of the hardy hills
entwined in each other’s presence.
He feeds the dialogue of his love of nature
as he gazes and points out
the crisp colours and myriad greens –
he asks if she sees what he sees,
if she hears what he hears –
and as she looks and thinks
with a bright child’s mind
she says ‘I can hear the sound of blossom falling.’
They both stand still and listen for a moment.
The Sound of Blossom Falling
Author: Vincent Berquez
Poetry
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
86 pages
Publisher: Cyberwit.net
Pub. Date: 2021
ISBN-10: 9390601096
ISBN-13: 978-9390601097
Dimensions: 13.97 x 0.56 x 21.59 cm
£10.89
• fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: #Editors Choice Archiv, - Book News, - Bookstores, Archive A-B, Archive A-B, Berquez, Vincent
Covid poem
Working in ITU Dept at a time of Covid 19
You cried for those eyes that felt no warmth,
for the afterthoughts of conversations yet to be finished.
The utter confinement gave little comfort in the dying cold
of pipes and masks, the smacking of latex gloves
trapping hands in sweaty health, the fear of a closing down.
The complete violation of sleep’s healing process,
static and dispassionate, mechanical air forced through.
The healthy milling around big bodies on small beds,
in plastic bubbles, lying on their bellies with loved ones far away.
Vincent Berquez
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 magazines worldwide (f.i. fleursdumal.nl).
• fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive A-B, Archive A-B, Berquez, Vincent, Vincent Berquez
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