Five Poems by Christopher Barnes

 

ZIP 31

          fishbone broadens

                                    humdrum jeans thrown over

Roy tweaks kinked dacron

                                    shin makeup - philamot

shirting assumes foppery

                                    gum for qualms

              clock idles hours

                                    arms out - posturing

ZIP 32

crosses handstitched on mesh

                                          bounceback of fanfare

                    totting the loom

                                          gypsy hoops reel

        Kal blinks through specs

                                          she waltzes bias-cut

          perle in frosted myrtle

                                          tense legs hippety-hop

ZIP 33

                                    out-of-joint neckline

                      sashiko grid

                                    she toddles over wires

Mac's retina tends points

                                    indistinct adumbration

handkerchief linen - flimsy

                                    chords slacken

        transfer paper spotlit

ZIP 34

burlap piecework morphs

                                    unironed shirt tails

Yves dissembles folk-art

                                    navvy's cap

        tufted knots shackle

                                  flush diamante mules

        piping's implacable

                                  electric-blue runway

ZIP 35

      rotary blade - keen

                                nail musses parting

            self-healing mat

                                  involuntary fidget

          Rob monitors list

                                  leatherette 'n' barbs

quintet of deviating reds

                                towerblock heels

In 1998 Christopher Barnes won a Northern Arts writers award.  In July 2000 he read at Waterstones bookshop to promote the anthology 'Titles Are Bitches'.  Christmas 2001 he debuted at Newcastle's famous Morden Tower doing a reading of poems.  Each year he read for Proudwords lesbian and gay writing festival and partook in workshops.  2005 saw the publication of his collection LOVEBITES published by Chanticleer Press, 6/1 Jamaica Mews, Edinburgh.On Saturday 16Th August 2003 he read at the Edinburgh Festival as a Per Verse.

Christmas 2001 The Northern Cultural Skills Partnership sponsored him to be mentored by Andy Croft in conjunction with New Writing North.  He made a radio programme for Web FM community radio about his writing group.

October-November 2005, he entered a poem/visual image into the art exhibition The Art Cafe Project, his piece Post-Mark was shown in Betty's Newcastle.  This event was sponsored by Pride On The Tyne.  He made a digital film with artists Kate Sweeney and Julie Ballands at a film making workshop called Out Of The Picture which was shown at the festival party for Proudwords, it contains his poem The Old Heave-Ho.  He worked on a collaborative art and literature project called How Gay Are Your Genes, facilitated by Lisa Mathews (poet) which exhibited at The Hatton Gallery, Newcastle University, including a film piece by the artist Predrag Pajdic in which he read his poem On Brenkley St.  The event was funded by The Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Institute, Bio-science Centre at Newcastle's Centre for Life.  He was involved in the Five Arts Cities poetry postcard event which exhibited at The Seven Stories children's literature building.

In May he had 2006 a solo art/poetry exhibition at The People's Theatre. The South Bank Centre in London recorded his poem "The Holiday I Never Had"; he can be heard reading it on www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record.asp?id=18456 

In August 2007 he made a film called 'A Blank Screen, 60 seconds, 1 shot' for Queerbeats Festival at The Star & Shadow Cinema Newcastle, reviewing a poem...see www.myspace.com/queerbeatsfestival  He has also written Art Criticism for Peel and Combustus Magazines.