Poetry of the Month - January

Happy New Year

Poetry is considered one of the highest art forms in the Republic of Georgia. It is recited at the dinner table and among friends. The greatest classic of Georgian literature is a twelfth-century epic by the poet Shota Rustaveli, called The Knight in the Tiger's Skin. Quotations from this work are still used as proverbs, such as this piece of advice: "What you give is yours, what you keep is lost."
As the world descends further into chaos and we abuse one another and the planet we share, using this wise quotation to open my 2008 poetry page seems like a good idea.

War or Peace?

Bombs explode in this place or that.
Are we at war?

I have never heard the resounding echoes of a blast so devastating it throws remnants of bodies and buildings into buildings and bodies.

I have only read the newspapers and seen the coffins gently laid to rest in dark damp graves.

Relatives dark and damp around the eyes.

© Chris Hoskins 1984 Although written in 1984, this poem is sadly still as relevant today as it was then.

Haiku

Seagulls wake the day
Sea tides ebb and flow and flow
Shore lines slip away

© Chris Hoskins 2007 Winner of the 2007 Lyme Regis Radio Haiku competition

This is my poem for Peace

This is my poem for peace
The one I cannot write for fear of shame
The one no-one will hear for fear of pain
And the one I cannot write will remain
un-thought and unspoken
like broken promises and fear of blame
This is my poem for peace

© Chris Hoskins 2004

Published by Forward Press/ Poetry Now as part of an anthology for 9/11 The Memory Lives On

Crossings

I’ve seen you at the crossroads
On rivers in a cross wind
crossing over to the other side

You’re caught in the cross fire
In the T that crosses poverty
In eyes that cross examine
and cross question at cross purposes

I’ve heard you in talks where crossed arms cross reference you
like a cross word puzzle

I’ve seen your face, so soft where the lines cross
And so I search for you in crowded places
so that together we can find peace

I’m looking for roads that don’t cross
Rivers that feed
Thoughts that sparkle
as they criss-cross mine
Palms that cross
Eyes that reflect mine
References we both understand
as we talk without a cross word

I’m looking for a bridge with no hand rail
so we can cross it and mark it
with insight
and meet half way

© Chris Hoskins 2006

Short listed for the Leeds Peace Poetry Competition 2006

The brief was to respond to: Can I see it your way, Can you see it my way?
In association with Together For Peace, Education Leeds, Arts@trinity, Yorkshire evening Post, Arts@Leeds, Leeds City Council & Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society.