POEM: While Justice Waits

While Justice Waits

there they go again

filling your mouth

with their name

there they go again

adding more weight

to your burden

there they go again

giving you all the anxiety

whilst telling you not to panic

when the panic is rooted in 

centuries of ... there they go again

there they go again

contradicting their own rules

double speak and double standards

there they go again

your dead are statistics 

your ghosts live in hashtags

there they go again

getting away with murder

but calling it anything else

there they go again

doing nothing 

as your vulnerable and

sick and dying

need all your love and care

and your living need all of your

focus, energy and time

there they go again

filling your plate

with their jobs

and the work

they should do

as your elected leaders

there they go again,

dominating your thoughts

so no work can get done

there they go again

grimacing on the front page

hogging the limelight

with this theatre of
performative cruelty

there they go again

suffocating light and hope

like a pillow held fast over the face

of the kicking and struggling truth

there they go again

consuming all the oxygen

and rewriting history

there they go again

like it's all about them

but it is because of them

and it is in spite of them

there they go again

obscuring the facts

blurring the edges

blinkering the horse

filtering the picture

there they go again

there they go again

there they go again

and it is not the names of the dead

nor the name of the nurse

not the name of the innocent

but their name in your mouth

how can it be?

that when you wake in the night

wailing and mourning and hurting

they are marching on your tongue

they are renting your insomnia

there they go again

using your anguish as garnish

using your defence as an attack

using your fear to divide you

using your rage to pass draconian laws

using your pain to sell shit back to you

using your grief to decorate newspapers

using your anger to kill you

because there they go again

casting an ass in the lead role

the wealthy politicians in the spotlight

the hideous clown gets top billing

the monster as the headline act

your horror gets a walk on part

your mourning cries are extras

your fury is the chorus line

your humanity the supporting cast

while justice waits in the wings

(c) Salena Godden / London / June 1st 2020 (first draft, work in progress)

1. Donate to Black Lives Matter: You can find the main donation page here

2. Find out more, BLM: The full list is here

3. Donate to a bail fund:  Thread here

4. Support the National Police Accountability Project:. More info here

5. Support Campaign Zero, a police reform group that has been working on policy solutions “informed by data and human rights principles.” More info here

6. Sign a petition: Civil rights group Color of Change launched a petition asking that all the officers involved in Floyd’s death are brought to justice. Find it here

7. Or another petition: The “Justice for George Floyd” petition on Change.org already has 8.5 million supporters. Find it here

8. Help the family of George Floyd HERE

9. Fight for Breonna Taylor HERE

10. Help the family of Ahmaud Arbery HERE

11. Help the family of Belly Mujinga HERE

12. Funding for writers and poets list:  https://www.spreadtheword.org.uk 

13. Are you a frontline health worker who needs #PPE? http://frontline.live is a community of volunteers working to get healthcare workers PPE  

14. Refugee Community Kitchen serving food at home and abroad: Bit.ly/RCKdonate

15. There is a rise in domestic abuse in lockdown. Help and support: bit.ly/3dVNIUJ 

16. Petition for Financial package for funeral of #CoronavirusPandemic deaths. Stop Family anxiety and debt: http://chng.it/bNyB4k7s7N

17. The Big Issue Foundation: bigissue.org.uk

18. Find your nearest foodbank, help or donate: https://www.trusselltrust.org

19. Issues with landlords: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk

20. Comprehensive list to help BLM: HERE

21. 3 years after Grenfell: Fundraiser by UK Cladding Group HERE

22. Marcus Rashford: Coronavirus response: Get food to vulnerable people HERE

I will be sharing some new lockdown work at these online events this month, 

I miss your faces so much, please stay safe, stay smart, stay strong, sgxx

JUNE 2020

JUNE 5 

JOURNEY TO NUTOPIA

PESSIMISM IS FOR LIGHTWEIGHTS 

WITH JOHN HIGGS AND MICHELLE OLLY

 7PM, COCKPIT THEATRE 

JUNE 6 

ROARING 20's RADIO X OWN IT! 

BROADCAST: SOHO RADIO, 4PM-6PM 

JUNE 9 

OWN IT! ONLINE FESTIVAL

POETRY DOUBLE BILL 

WITH SOPHIA THAKUR

INSTA LIVE, 8PM

JUNE 12  

OWN IT! ONLINE FESTIVAL

EXCLUSIVE READING, DEBUT NOVEL 

'MRS DEATH MISSES DEATH'

INSTA LIVE, 9PM

JUNE 14 

YORK FESTIVAL OF IDEAS

'BETWEEN WORLDS' WEBINAR

IN CONVERSATION WITH ANNA PHOEBE

Journey to Nutopia: Pessimism is for Lightweights with John Higgs, The Cockpit Theatre, June 5th

J O U R N E Y   T O   N U T O P I A

"With the lockdown starting to ease, we are entering a new, liminal phase between the old and the new ‘normal’. Are we ready, to paraphrase Ghandi - to be the change - above and beyond the claps and rainbows? To discuss where we’re at, how we got here and where we could be going, Nutopia host Michelle Olley is joined by cognitive historian and author, John Higgs and poet and author, Salena Godden. As well as bringing a fresh perspective to the past/collective memory, John Higgs has a history of exploring possible futures. He’s also the man who coined the phrase Pessimism is for Lightweights. Salena Godden took that phrase and turned it into an inspirational poem, inspiring us, in part, to begin the Nutopian project."

💚 £1 tickets have just gone on sale for this! 

Book here: Cockpit Theatre

Save the date: Friday June 5th: I'll join the mighty John Higgs and Michelle Olly at the Cockpit Theatre. I'm thrilled to be invited to join in and do a poem or two, whilst also supporting this legendary theatre venue during lockdown. Tickets are just £1. YES! That’s ONE pound! I look forward to chatting with you all next Friday via Zoom. Thank you my friends, I miss your faces, stay safe! 💚 

Thank you to all who've been sharing and downloading 'The Lockdown EP' it is out now as a digital release only. 50% of profits to be donated to NHS, to boost depleted PPE stock and also go towards providing mental health support for NHS staff. These poems have featured on The Verb on BBC Radio 3 and also on Ninja Tunes, Jon More's OUT2LUNCH mix on Soho Radio - Tune in here: https://bit.ly/2Ao0gEI

Find out more about this at Nymphs and Thugs 

http://nymphsandthugs.net 

Poetry and special edition posters available at Rough Trade Books 

www.roughtradebooks.com

'And The Moon Don't Talk To Me Anymore' by Salena Godden and Anna Phoebe

and the moon don't talk to me anymore

and starlings swing on the skeleton in a cage

pecking at the fat and the meat and the seed

and through my dirty window 

the cherry blossom was always plastic 

bought for a fiver from down town China town

and the moon don't talk to us anymore 

and my white tablecloth is stained with coffee

which came from a country already in flames

and the moon don't talk to us anymore 

she is rising fat and full and furious with grief

a mourning that washes up with tide after tide 

and the tide that rises with the moon

the salt water crashing to shore

and the moon won't talk to me anymore

and the night is dead and the dark is long

and the rain pours down like the sky's all a river

and the moon don't sing 

and the moon wont sing

and the fear spreads and seeps into everything 

like a bad smell and like smoke under your door

and the moon don't talk to you anymore

you have memories of sleeping in your clothes 

like a bad dog on a blanket on the floor

are these memoires or premonitions? 

you just don't know anymore

because the moon won't talk to you anymore

and the moon hangs heavy

and the sun has turned his back 

and all I see is his coat of clouds

and the rain washes any decency away

but the sound of the washing machine is a comfort 

it's like the sound of the sea from what you remember 

from a postcard someone sent you from before 

remember? it was stuck to your fridge door

it said I wish you were here

and I do, I wish you were here

because the moon won't talk to us anymore 

the fridge feels safe, so stock up the store

you hope the delivery man washed his hands

cleaned his van, sanitised his face

and has no next of kin

and we buzz on the internet like bees

oh we are the lucky ones, aren't we? 

hiding at home, locked in our houses

wearing pyjamas and boosting the heating

try not to think of the poor or the elderly 

those that 'aint safe and those that aren't eating

think of the food banks, the people in cages, all ages

and the kids that needed that one hot school meal, it got real

all the folk who cannot afford the bills 

the unpaid time off work, the medicine, the pills

and the moon 'aint shining anymore

her milky face seems clotted with uncertainty

and the gods are all stone cold silent today 

and the blue sky is box set you binge in a heat wave

hope is at the bottom of a well

and there's a hole in my bucket 

but I keep turning the handle

because this too will pass

and nothing is forever

and all pigs are equal

but some pigs are more equal than others

speeding off in private jets to bunkers leaving their brothers

when they voted in this mess, it's flawed

and the moon won't talk to them anymore

and the moon don't talk to them anymore

and well we all didn't picture it this way

you hum along to an empty fridge 

you talk to the washing machine

because it's face is as round as the moon

your stand there clapping at a feeling

with scratch marks on the door and the ceiling 

and the moon don't talk to me anymore

and the moon don't talk to me anymore

(c) Salena Godden. London. March 2020

And 

The Moon

Don't Talk 

To Me

Anymore 

words by Salena Godden and music by Anna Phoebe 

WATCH NOW

youtube: https://youtu.be/oK4rWFW5KVU

facebook: www.facebook.com/AnnaPhoebeMusic 

instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tv/

Before the Coronavirus pandemic, poet and author Salena Godden and violinist and composer Anna Phoebe were on the phone planning a collaboration for a special live show at York Festival Of Ideas - The event was planned for June 2020. Although they had not worked together before, they were excited at the prospect of this new collaboration. Due to the pandemic, the festival was cancelled, but the two artists decided to experiment and make work in lockdown remotely. And The Moon Don't Talk To Me Anymore is the first of these experiments. Salena and Anna both hope to perform this work live on stage one day, this work contains that wish.

The first raw drafts of this poem were written under the March full moon, in the early days of the UK lockdown, as the Coronavirus crisis exposed cracks and flaws and inequalities and a need for change; a time to envision ways to rebuild and reconnect. This work is centred in exploring that, our connection and disconnection, the social, the political, the environmental and the spiritual. By sending files of words and music, audio and film via emails and the internet the two artists are connected by the work and a shared human expression and experience.

This is the blues: the feel of this piece is a melancholy moon bath. This piece is like a candle we light under this May full moon with acknowledgement of human loss and universal waves of grief felt by so many. We are all under the same moon, but we are not all safe and equally protected and cared for. There are waves of miscommunication, panic, anger, fury and outrage, but there are also waves of hope and kindness, we hold onto that love, riding waves of hope through all of this: Hope is at the bottom of the well ... but I keep turning the handle.

Anna Phoebe: 

Anna Phoebe is a composer on cross-genre collaborative projects, working with science, poetry, dance and art. Between Worlds is an ongoing project communicating science through music. She is currently collaborating with the European Space Agency, writing a musical response to their Earth Observation Data, tracking climate crisis. She has previously worked with Cancer and Alzheimer’s research at the University of Kent, writing a 40-minute choral/ensemble work, which premiered in 2019. Anna won Best Composer at the Underwire 2019 Film Festival for her score for short film ‘Belittled’. She is currently scoring soundscapes set to ‘England Poems from a School’ - poetry written by refugee children living in the UK, working with Lorraine Ashbourne and Andy Serkis. As a performer Anna Phoebe has toured concert venues, arenas and festivals throughout the world, both as a solo artist and with multi-platinum selling bands including Roxy Music and Jethro Tull. Her band supported Bob Dylan at the Rock Legends Festival in Poland. Anna’s instrumental duo AVAWaves released their debut album Waves in 2019 on One Little Indian Records. She is currently touring and recording with Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement recipient, Nitin Sawhney CBE -  www.annaphoebe.com

Salena Godden 

Salena Godden is a poet based in London. She is an author, activist, broadcaster, essayist and memoirist whose work has been widely anthologised. She has had several volumes of poetry published including most recently Pessimism is for Lightweights (Rough Trade Books) and a literary childhood memoir, Springfield Road (Unbound). Her timely poem Pessimism is for Lightweights was donated to The Peoples History Museum, Manchester, where it is now on permanent display - The work was unveiled in February 2020 to mark the museum's 10th birthday. Salena has recorded several albums, most recently her spoken-word album LIVEwire (Nymphs and Thugs) which was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award in 2017.  Canongate pre-empted world rights to her debut novel Mrs Death Misses Death, described by the publisher as an “electrifying genre- and form-defying firestarter." This debut will be published in the new year, January 2021. www.salenagodden.co.uk 

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