Live Encounters Poetry & Writing 16th Anniversary Volume Two
November- December 2025
Birmingham Botanics, poems by Neil Leadbeater.
Birmingham Botanics
Heeling south: agapanthus in a light breeze
scrawls its signature in bright blue-ink
across the boundary wall.
The glasshouses, hot as gossip,
swelter in the heat.
Office workers with sweat on their palms
flood in at noon.
Half an hour of peace
from the constant trilling of phones.
In the far corner
the foxgloves are having a field day
flaunting themselves in a riot of pink:
bells for the bees.
Unforgettable Moments
Strawberry fields in Sefton Park / Visiting the Bluecoat Chambers /
art at The Walker / Pre-raphaelites in the Lady Lever /
the Isle of Man steam packet docked at the quayside /
Gerry and the Pacemakers singing Ferry ’cross the Mersey /
calling in at the Sudley for Strudwick’s ‘St. Cecilia’
or the fanciful informality of Leighton’s ‘Sunny Corner’ /
hearing Widor’s Toccata in the high Anglican Cathedral /
Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana at the Philharmonic Hall /
the pride of Cammell Laird / views of the Clywdian Hills
from the windows of Woolton Manor /Beatlemania at The Cavern /
the song I will always remember: Norwegian Wood
Maltese Pearls
are the white olives of the Mediterranean
—bajda in the original—
blushed by brine to a pale ivory
(think of white canellini beans
or say bianca or biancolilla
and everyone will know what you mean).
Held in high esteem, they are
sacramental oil, gifts from God
shaped like crescent moons.
How readily you place them
pearlescent in your mouth.
Pistachio
Say it out loud
and it is almost like sneezing—
that ‘semi-autonomous, convulsive expulsion
of air from the lungs
through the nose and mouth’—
that makes you think of hayfever, salad
dessert and pollen, of the terraced orchards
of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and northern Iran:
a Silk Road indulgence
in the dustbowl of summer.
© Neil Leadbeater
Neil Leadbeater is an author, essayist, poet and critic living in Edinburgh, Scotland. His work has been published widely in anthologies and journals both at home and abroad. His latest publications are ‘Italian Air / Radiant Days’ and ‘Cycling to the End of the World’ (both published by Cyberwit.net, Allahabad, India, 2024 and 2025). Other publications include ‘Librettos for the Black Madonna’ (White Adder Press, 2011); ‘The Loveliest Vein of Our Lives’ (Poetry Space, 2014); ‘The Fragility of Moths’ (editura pim, Iași, Romania, 2014); ‘Sleeve Notes’ (editura pim, Iași, Romania, 2016); and an e-book, ‘Grease-banding The Apple Trees’ (Rafaelli Editore, Rimini, Italy, 2015). His work has been translated into Chinese, French, Dutch, Nepali, Romanian, Spanish and Swedish.