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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
Vincent Berquez©: Drawing Nr. 11
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
Vera Rich
She smelt of time
walking slowly
like a mountain.
She railed
heavily
and flowed internally
and cared profoundly
but slowly,
at her own pace.
She smelt the energy
of her people,
of their language
on her lips.
Like a mother river
she carried many
with her on a raft
towards themselves.
01.03.10
Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez is a London–based artist and poet
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive A-B, Berquez, Vincent, Vincent Berquez
Satie in Paris
Fleeting smoke mesmeric in sound-time,
jumping drone-tones from unsettling man
playing in a lonely shadowed singularity.
Fibrous flickering feet clicking-bawdy songs,
bulking up the waltz, stop-start stutter-noises,
speeding up the early morning cold hands
gravely, moving-pictures pass hysterically by.
The music begins mysteries in living forms,
belting down the hearts of crowds,
walking through the buzzing boulevards,
the actual grudge-work in mortified factories,
a wet-grey urban poverty engulfing the absurd.
He viewed from after and before the effect
of a cheapened life in warfare, in commerce,
before the new migration, the great conflagration,
in revolutions of our hearts, in the light of night,
from the torpedo tobacco begging for fire in bad air.
The wormlike moveable-mass sought salvation
and received craters full of broken sons instead.
Ironic cabaret music played out the times and died.
Underground chambers of rebel artists and composers
seethed sexual ballets, arm-twisted around perversities
in eccentric poses, the dance twisting towards the next.
26.04.09
Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez is a London–based artist and poet.
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive A-B, Berquez, Vincent, Erik Satie, Satie, Erik, Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez: Drawing
Vincent Berquez contributes regularly to our art-magazine fleursdumal.nl
________________________________________________________________________
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
More in: Berquez, Vincent, Exhibition Archive, Vincent Berquez
Rodin – Claudel
He carves a stone body; each chip removes,
reduces until the whole begins to succumb.
The split in the marble is a slit deep in the grain,
it bleeds crystals for his folly, fighting against him.
His chisel is not a weapon; it does not maim or kill,
it is a tool to improve what can be understood,
it yields to the force of his delicate hand gently.
The female figure becomes a thing of love
justifying its long term existence as art,
beyond our stupid waste, beyond selfishness.
He penetrates as they communion together.
Vincent Berquez poetry
14.11.13
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive A-B, Auguste Rodin, Berquez, Vincent, Camille Claudel, Vincent Berquez
John Hopkins RIP
Hoppy loves Suzy Creamcheese, who drips Mary Quant filled eyes
and a silver skirt like a space girl.
They watch black and white films and her legs go all the way up
to the liquid sky filled pop dream in a shaky psychedelic shimmer.
Hoppy Hopkins loves his music and poetry from those Hippies
and flower filled scented freaks, the Jagger’s and the Ginsberg’s
dance for his monochrome photography and liquid light shows.
Suzy Creamcheese drops acid to the Pink Floyd at the UFO Club
every Friday night and Hoppy stands on a scaffold grooving the heavy sounds.
She knew Hendryx and Neil Young and the Lovin’ Spoonful, and all the guys.
In the year of Our Lord 1967AD 14 hours of Yoko and friends snipped a dress
off of a girl made of paper with blunt scissors.
The girl wore nothing underneath bar Biba knickers with a smile like a dream.
The naked truth, said the media was shocking but suffered no paper cuts.
The London sunrise blasted the zapped plastic 1960s
into the vinyl sickness of the plastic orange of the 1970s.
Hoppy Hopkins’s hash stash got him slammed in a HM prison,
and Susan Zeiger (aka Suzy Creamcheese) left the building.
16.02.15
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 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: Archive A-B, Berquez, Vincent, Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez: Angel of Bugloze
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
More in: Berquez, Vincent, FDM in London, Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez
Following the farmer’s dog
The children follow the sheepdog
who follows its master along
the glassy road of chilly children’s
feet and the scar under the icy paw
of the working dog beneath it.
The echoing laughter of children,
the solid animals slowly scratching
the hardened ground of the harsh
winter and tumbling white crystals.
The intimate covering amplifies
the skipping children full of laughter
on the harsh diamonds beneath them,
as the slippery earth trips them up;
and the dog’s scarred paw cuts deep
in the cold and it moves fast to feel less
of the freezing ground beneath
following its master towards the flock.
And afterwards the children will drink
hot drinks and the farmer and his scuttling
dog will eat hot food, and the cattle
will be revived on this Christmas Eve,
this twinkling morning of dusky daylight.
24.12.2010
vincent berquez poetry
kempis.nl poetry magazine
More in: Berquez, Vincent, Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez
Infant illness
Yelling the night down
the voice lilts and moans.
Listening for his cries
out loud, a song of pain
and voiceless shackles
slides out of the void
of illness in the dark game
of night and hot breath.
His mouth rattles and yells
the lights on and demands
the tender strokes of relief
from the heart of a cough.
The hack of a scarlet throat,
a nose full of glue
he yells our attention
sitting to attention
in the complete darkness.
The lament of infant illness
dries up for a while
and waits in the song of tears.
24.12.10
vincent berquez poetry
kempis.nl poetry magazine
More in: Berquez, Vincent, Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez © painting: St Vincent de Paul
kempis.nl poetry magazine
More in: Berquez, Vincent, Vincent Berquez
Vincent Berquez© painting: Autumn in Hampstead
kempis.nl poetry magazine
More in: 4SEASONS#Autumn, Berquez, Vincent, Vincent Berquez
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