The Tall Lighthouse

Nii Parkes

Nii Parkes poetry is influenced by West African speech patterns and jazz rhythms. He performs regularly in England America, Europe and Africa and was poet-in-residence at the Poetry Café in 2003. He is also the host of Aroma poetry in London and organises numerous events both in the UK and abroad.


If Nii's potato poetry is anything to go by - go buy

                                                                                      John Hegley

ballast: a remix

£4

ISBN 978 1 904551 65 2

The sequence presented in ballast is stunning, each poem taing as its subject the cargo of teh transatlantic slave trade. The plethora of ideas presented here - at times tragic, at times uplifting - will linger long after the last line is read.

 

M is for Madrigal

£2.00

ISBN 1 904551 09 2

Seven poems from nii who is renowned for his readings and events

in London and afar

 

‘round midnight from m is for madrigal

‘round midnight

stars continue to push

through holes in

the nights black net

 

‘round midnight

the sun whispers distractions to the moon

tries to get her to come to bed early

but she turns him down

like a dimmer switch

 

‘round midnight

winds become secrets

sprinkled over silent seas

to evoke waves of excitement

 

‘round midnight

speech sheds its skin

to reveal raw rhythms;

rises and falls

of chests and breasts,

gurgles and giggles

subtext and riddles;

breath – slow and sure

                         

‘round midnight

the earth rises in heat

from its bed of aphrodisiac plants

reaches out with tree arms

to embrace the skies

damp with longing

to make the universe one

 

‘round midnight

the world becomes poetry

and I dare not sleep

‘round midnight