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The concept of identity – be it class, gender, sexuality, national, institutional, or anything else we define ourselves by – has gone through radical change over the past half-century, and the idea of definition by binary oppositions is no longer as relevant as it once was. Spectrum is a poetry anthology that seeks to amplify marginalised voices, and to celebrate the great diversity and rich variation in the identities of people from around the world and from a huge cross-section of walks of life.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022
spectrum
poetry celebrating identity
renard press
Renard Press Ltd
124 City Road
London EC1V 2NX
United Kingdom
020 8050 2928
www.renardpress.com
Spectrum: Poetry Celebrating Identity first published in 2022
Poems and biographies © the poets and judges, 2022All other text © Renard Press, 2022
Cover design by Will Dady
The authors assert their right to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental, or is used fictitiously.
Renard Press is proud to be a climate positive publisher, removing more carbon from the air than we emit and planting a small forest. For more information see renardpress.com/eco.
All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, used to train artificial intelligence systems or models, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior permission of the publisher.
EU Authorised Representative: Easy Access System Europe – Mustamäe tee 50, 10621 Tallinn, Estonia, [email protected].
contents
About Spectrum
About the Judges
Spectrum
god is a trini
Rayne Affonso
when i balanced who i am upon the turning of a book
Jane Burn
12 years old, in my superman dressing gown
Mia Jasmine Rhodes
a bicycle reminisces about 1962
Ivy Raff
a garden of new song
Ewa Gerald Onyebuchi
a highly sensitive mission
Lana Silver
all that i am
Dianne McPhelim
autumn drive with father
Sophie Laura Waters
back to black
Alyson Smith
barber off the harrow road
Jenny Mitchell
bbc young dancer 2022
Daphne Sampson
be careful who you invite home
Thea Smiley
body
Rachel Burns
but where are you really from?
Neshma
cardiogram variations
Oz Hardwick
changing state
Jess Skyleson
community payback
Damon Young
dance of the drag queens
Cameron Rew
dissimilarities
Peter Hill
elderly swimmers at the pool
Cathy Bryant
emigrant/immigrant
Roisín Harkin
grounded
Ellie Herda-Grimwood
half-life
Jazz McCoull
he
Frankie Whiting
home is here
Overcomer Ibiteye
i am not what you think
Jennifer Cousins
in shaa allah
Fadairo Tesleem
keys to the city
Deborah Finding
lavender menace
Elle Echendu
listen, stranger man
Arinze Chiemenam
memory is a mother to every little beginning
Nwuguru Chidiebere Sullivan
mother tongue
Caroline Am Bergris
mum’s heels
Sam Honeybone
my dear iraq
Samah Alnuaimi
nebulous strike in minnesota
Nnadi Samuel
olympus
Kat Dixon
on reading my transatlantic poem, she sends me the laughing emoji
Chiwenite Onyekwelu
penance
Carolann North
pink carnations outside the russian embassy
Tim Kiely
precious
Suman Gujral
sappho’s nightwalk
Ozzy Welch
screw the pantomime
Jessica Appleby
some comments on your thoughts about being british indian
Anita Goveas
sunday lunch
Matt Leonard
sunday vaudeville
Naomi Madlock
switched out
Lucy Zhang
t4t (trans for trans)
Abhainn Connolly
the boy from the estate
Steve Baggs
the collector
Jessica Oakwood
the odd space in between
Raina Muriithi
the wraith and the magpie
LJ Ireton
to the caged bird in church
Martins Deep
transformation
Susan Cartwright-Smith
whale watching in the arctic circle
Kerry Ryan
where four worlds meet
Dave Wynne-Jones
About the Poets
Supporters
about spectrum
In February 2021 Renard put out a call for submissions for the New Beginnings poetry project, a competition open to all those who ‘felt their voice was silenced in 2020’. We were absolutely overwhelmed by the response to the project, and it became clear how important such projects are in raising the voices of those who feel shut out of the mainstream.
With 2022 has come, for many, a gradual easing of restrictions and an improvement to life – but, of course, for others it has also brought war and oppression, and myriad old prejudices have yet to be banished. How important, then, to celebrate the rich tapestry of the human race, to talk about our differences, to explore others’ experiences – and that’s exactly what Spectrum is: a celebration of identity.
As with any project, there were several vital people working away behind the scenes. Miriam Halahmy, Tom Denbigh, Hannah Fields and Will Dady, the judges, had quite a task whittling down the vast pile of submissions to the shortlist you see here today, and it is testament to their hard work that the list is so varied and rich in talent.
The project was supported by a crowdfunding campaign – thanks in abundance go to all those kind souls who supported the project; their names can be found on p. 161. And finally, our thanks to you, reader, for picking up this book, for supporting this project and, above all, for helping us to celebrate the great spectrum of identity.
the publisher
about the judges
miriam halahmy
Miriam was a teacher for twenty-five years, and, having worked with refugees and asylum seekers in schools, her writing engages with historical and contemporary issues that affect children across time – most notably the plight of refugees. Her young-adult novel, Hidden, was a Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week, was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and has been adapted for the stage. Saving Hanno, Miriam’s latest book, is about a boy who comes on the Kindertransport and reflects on the grief and loss experienced by refugee children.
tom denbigh
Tom Denbigh lives in Bristol with an obscene number of books. He is the first Bristol Pride Poet Laureate and a BBC 1Extra Emerging Artist Talent Search winner. He has performed at the Royal Albert Hall and festivals around the UK, and has brought poetry to Brighton and London Prides. He is a producer at Milk Poetry and has facilitated writing workshops for groups of students from the UK and abroad (he is particularly proud of his work with queer young people). His debut collection …and then she ate him is out now with Burning Eye Books.
hannah fields
Hannah Fields is a writer, editor and publisher from Texas. She founded the independent publishing company, Folkways Press, in 2020, and launched the company with an anthology, We Are Not Shadows, as its inaugural publication. The anthology selected writing from women of all ages and backgrounds and covers a wide range of topics – including issues of race, gender, sexuality, trauma, adversity, disability and more. She has worked on various publications, from children’s books to award-winning magazines, along with various publishers in the US and UK.
will dady
Will Dady grew up in the wonderfully named Great Snoring in North Norfolk, and now lives in London. He is the Publisher at Renard Press, which he founded in 2020. A publisher of classic and contemporary fiction, non-fiction, theatre and poetry, part of Renard’s raison d’être is to empower and provide a platform to marginalised voices. The New Beginnings project was set up in 2021 as an antidote to the less pleasant aspects of the pandemic, and its huge success in attracting stirring entries has made these projects a firm fixture in Renard’s publishing programme.
spectrum
winner
god is a trini
Rayne Affonso
runner-up
when i balanced who i am upon the turning of a book
Jane Burn
special mentions from the judges
Miriam Halahmy
whale watching in the arctic circle
Kerry Ryan
Tom Denbigh
olympus
Kat Dixon
Hannah Fields
barber off the harrow road
Jenny Mitchell
will dady
the boy from the estate
Steve Baggs
god is a trini
Rayne Affonso
sweating bullets in the embassy line, while the older woman in front of him
sings praise for her daughter’s marriage to a man in Houston
who has one of those computer jobs, she could never remember the name,
but their child is bright bright and can’t get the valleys out of his Yankee trill and
God wishes he didn’t wear black when it’s so blasted hot,
idly scrolls through Facebook, thumb brushing over the latest kidnapping and
the video of that vagrant scratching his balls in the middle of Independence Square
and today’s Parliament dispute, and God scoffs
at the comments by the party supporters who lie and the party supporters
who can stand being lied to, but God himself didn’t vote,
because no man with one foot out the door will cut the next one off
if he plans on running and God plans on running, has planned on running,
has dreamt of running to a place where sugar doesn’t still grow in the streets,
bloodied at the root, a place where you can have a girl child
without shittin’ bricks, but God still averts his eyes when
his bredrin cuffs down his child mother so hard she has three chipped teeth
and God clinked beers with him that day, the dread in his belly not unfixable
with some hard local… besides, God is only leaving
to take up temporary residence in his auntie’s basement, not really his auntie
but the fat sister of his mother’s seamstress, whose son he pitched marbles with
and God will be back in time for Carnival, to kick his feet up on Wednesday
with a buzz from the nostalgia of the present moment’s ocean: blue,
as yesterday’s devil with her round painted breasts,
as the barrels he will send for his children.