Thirst (Live on BBC Radio 4)

Another chance to hear my reading of Thirst accompanied by the wonderful Julia Kent from the recent BBC Radio broadcast of favourite poems and songs by Cerys Matthews.

Written & Spoken by John Siddique

Music by Julia Kent

Produced by Christine Hall

Recorded Live at St. George's, Bristol

Originally Broadcast As Part of 'With Great Pleasure' with Cerys Matthews

Thirst is from the book Full Blood

johnsiddique.co.uk

juliakent.com

Books by John Siddique

tinyurl.com/siddiquebooks

'A stellar British poet' - The Spectator

'Rebellious by nature, pure at heart' - The Times of India

Our Future Hasn't Happened Yet..

I wonder what happened to the future, to quote Bill and Ted 'Our Album Covers Have Lied To Us Man'. Perhaps in my case the books I read as a boy thought that things would be different than they are. There is so much to have gratitude for, that I have to say this is not a moan, but a real wondering about the roads taken and not taken. I know there is so much we could be in arms about, perhaps should be in arms about, but today is about Lammas, and tonight a feast celebrating what we have sown this year.

I was just looking at book covers while letting my mind go this afternoon, a new poem of mine has decided that even though it has been published in a very reputable place, it now should undergo a massive expansion into a fairly complex sequence. The only way forward for me on day like this is to spend it mostly in silence, look at things which actually move me, read a bit to strike some sparks.... I'm sure you have your daydreaming habits too. Do tell by the way, we'd love to know.

....anyway I ended up browsing Wyndham's Chocky, one of my favourite novels from my teens, and the tv series was brilliant too.. It is the story of a boy learning about unlimited cosmic power from a telepathic alien visitor called Chocky.. oh gosh, I've just remembered the theme tune for the show.. wonderful.. and these thoughts of tapping the universal power just got me to thinking that the future I thought was coming hasn't arrived yet, so instead I'll celebrate the harvest that we've made with our own hands with love and gratitude this year.

John

Get Drunk

Get Drunk

One should always be drunk. That’s the great thing; the only

question. Not to feel the horrible burden of Time weighing on

your shoulders and bowing you to the earth, you should be

drunk without respite.

Drunk with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue,

as you please. But get drunk.

And if sometimes you should happen to awake, on the stairs
of a palace, on the green grass of a ditch, in the dreary solitude
of your own room, and find that your drunkenness is ebbing
or has vanished, ask the wind and the wave, ask star, bird, or
clock, ask everything that flies, everything that moans, every-
thing that flows, everything that sings, everything that speaks,
ask them the time; and the wind, the wave, the star, the bird
and the clock will all reply: “It is Time to get drunk! If you
are not to be the martyred slaves of Time, be perpetually drunk!
With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you please.”

Charles Baudelaire