Poetry news: 'City of Water' published this week in new Sunburnt Saints anthology

Happy Publication Day! 

NEW! Out now! #SunburntSaints is here! NEW anthology of climate fiction published by Seventy2One this week! I'm proud to be part of this book and share 3 poems in here. Thanks and congratulations to all involved, all contributors and editors. 

Massive Overheads is Andrew Leach, Hannah Persaud and Alec Bowman, publishing as #Seventy2One -:- https://massiveoverheads.com

You can hear amazing excerpts from the short stories on the latest episode 23 of Roaring 20s Radio. Tune in wherever you usually listen to your podcasts or via anchor: https://anchor.fm/roaring20sradio

Order Sunburnt Saints at Big Green Bookshop - https://biggreenbookshop.com - and support this ever so wonderful indie collection containing hope, passion and protest! Thank you! 

To celebrate this publication, here is one of my 3 poems. I'm sharing this on my blog today as a salute as we approach Gigi's anniversary this month. This one is for you ... Keep fighting the good fight comrades! Xxsg

CITY OF WATER

My Italian friend

Gigi once said

beware when

Venice floods

because when

Venice floods

it's the beginning

of the end of the world

I remember

his words of warning

and watch the news

it sure feels like the beginning

of the end of the world

Brown flood water

and rising tides

here

and raging fires

and black smoke

there

Everywhere

a chaos is constant

a migration of people

losing their homes

all over the planet

we are unsettled

Venice is flooded

not in a dystopian fiction

but right here and right now

I miss Gigi

I know if he were alive

he'd be so furious right now

he'd be on the phone

swearing and smoking

trying to raise funds for Venice  

I'm sad I never visited Venice with him

I have never been to the city of water

I have never stolen a kiss under a bridge

or held hands in a gondola in Venetian moonlight

There is so much I haven't done yet

there is so much world out there to see

so much wonder to share and

so much life to fight for

(c) Salena Godden. 2o21

Sunburnt Saints

PUBLISHED: NOVEMBER 30th 2021

 

 An indispensable anthology of climate fiction featuring 

Billy O'Callaghan (My Coney Island Baby), Antonia Honeywell (The Ship), 

Carmen Marcus (How Saints Die), Michael Walters (The Complex), 

Elisabeth Ingram Wallace (winner of the Mogford Short Story Prize) 

and Salena Godden (Mrs Death Misses Death) and many, many more.  

Order: https://biggreenbookshop.com

'Some stories can change you forever. 

What you do with that change is up to you.'

 

Gigi Giannuzzi, founder of Trolley Books, died on Christmas Eve, 2012.  

At the celebration of his life in Shoreditch Church, the priest called Gigi 'a saint' he then went on to salute this man that is still so sorely missed by so many of us. I also remember the priest said 'books are like arrows...' and so it is a wonderful connection to me, a little bit of magic, to remember Gigi in this way and that this short poem finds itself published in an anthology titled Sunburnt Saints. 

TROLLEY BOOKS:  

www.trolleybooks.com

 

"Bravo, come mi pace a me,

senza programmi"

 

"Good, how I like it,

without a plan"

 

Viva Gigi! 

Rest in Power!