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Live Encounters Poetry & Writing May 2023
Double bed, single use – poems by Sven Kretzschmar
Double bed, single use
with a line by Patrick Kehoe
Those bedsprings do not remember the weight of two,
no rehearsing of athletic movements or angelic songs.
This duvet a cover-up of exhausted attempts
to find our casual ways again, of events jumbling
in memory, nights of too much room
in my bed. No affectionate letters placed
on pillows to compensate apartness
by day. On the bed stand in stacked poetry books
love is alive on paper-thin mattresses, standard print.
When June comes
after Patrick Kehoe
with whispers and winds,
summer chafers around rooflights,
empty stubbies full of stories,
I will see again maroon-soft hair,
teasing eyes between shadow entries
and light cone corners.
When June comes
with whispered conversations,
songs of careless love, your single bed.
The leafwind’s sigh
after Lord Byron
And we’ll saunter greening forests
in afternoon’s soft light
to the robin’s flickering chorus
and the leafwind’s hopeful sigh.
And one dog will outrun us
and the other lag behind.
My heart still looking for your trust,
wishing for moon and night.
For May nights are for loving
under pale clouds up above.
Yet alone hope goes a-roving
and you won’t return my love.
Almost-romance
after Patrick Kehoe
No one could have defied your joyful air,
barkbrown eyes, easy voice always
on the brink of uncertainty.
Top-heavy I hid mine behind
philosophy, theory, subtle banter,
too late, as ever, for casting
cautions to the summer wind.
Who would have defied you:
even the cobblestones could not hide
their booze-fuelled night shimmer, offering
uncertain steps down a lane
we never walked hand in hand.
Sieve
after Patrick Kehoe
Pasta boiling on the hob, our nighttalks
were quick-bursting bubbles of hot
water in a pot. Debating and smiles
gyrated in the soft dust of vegetable broth:
What I longed to relish might long be
forgotten by you. A strainer whose fill
sieves through the lattice filament of a lifetime.
© Sven Kretzschmar
Sven Kretzschmar hails from County Saarland, Germany. His poetry has been published widely in Europe and overseas, among other outlets with Poetry Jukebox in Belfast, in Writing Home. The ‘New Irish’ Poets (Dedalus Press, 2019), Poets Meet Politics (Hungry Hill Writing, 2020) Hold Open the Door (UCD Press, 2020), Voices 2020 (Cold River Press, 2020), Voices 2021 (Cold River Press, 2021) and 100 Words of Solitude (Rare Swan Press, 2021), in The Irish Times, Das Gedicht, The Banyan Review, The Bangor Literary Journal, Studi Irelandesi, Culture Matters, South Florida Poetry Journal, and on RTÉ Radio.
Sven was awarded 1st prize in the ‘Creating a Buzz in Strokestown’ competition in 2018, 2nd place at the Francis Ledwidge International Poetry Award 2022, and he was shortlisted for the Allingham Poetry Award 2019, the Over the Edge New Writer of the Year 2019 and the Saolta Arts Annual Poetry Competition 2020, special mention in the Desmond O’Grady International Poetry Competition 2020.
See more at: https://trackking.wordpress.com/ and Instagram: @sven_kretzschmar_poetry