#twenga12

Twenga 12
1 May – 8 August 2024

#twenga is an annual (or in times of need) renga
of 100 Verses on Twitter

Sabaki/Host Poet – Paul Conneally
Sabaki/Host Poet – Gavin Wade

Anum Jamal @anumajamal
Paul Conneally @LittleOnion

Gavin Wade @gavin_wade_
Paula Turner @random_fate
Alison Raybould @jamray
Tina Francis @tinafrancis15
Patrick Goodall @artpickdarkpot
Hilde de Bruijn @tantwenga2024
Cathy Wade @cathy_wade
Ruth Claxton @ruthclaxton

#1
finally May Day
all the tender plants
get put outside

#2
the dawn chorus
and morris dancers

#3
a squadron of bees
bumbling through
the pear blossom

#4
the Irish farmer says
“the rain’s inside our heads”

#5
dreaming
at the kitchen table
before company comes

#6
married and buried
on midwinter’s day

#7
talking to Dulcie
about her blood pressure
the sun hits the window

#8
a helium balloon high
in a Slimcea world

#9
shovelling soil
her beach ready body
gets a new kind of workout

#10
flamingo dazzle patterns
flock Lake Bogoria

#11
teaching class about
the power of water
he cuts through stone

#12
the Sherpa
becomes a bridge

#13
in the drawer
I find an old mixtape
gifted to my love

#14
still singing
though we’re 6-1 down

#15
the crossword compiler
stops raking leaves
and stares into space

#16
between mouse and moon
the owl’s shadow

#17
no one notices
the bruises
when it’s apple pie

#18
walking the long way
to the grocery store

#19
kept awake
the whole night through
by cats in love

#20
endless tulip fields
rush past my train

#21
Destiny, Death and Dream
have no right to
interfere with mortals

#22
ULEZ scrappings
save lives in Ukraine

#23
the prime minister
calls an election
in a wet suit

#24
buy one
get one free

#25
enroute to playtime
Aisha wonders
how big is the universe?

#26
the clack of wood on willow
at the council nets

#27
frost ghosting
the covered stairway
in Sighişoara

#28
my cold feet
pressed against his warmth

#29
Noor’s stepmom
cooks up their favourite
birthday bouillabaisse

#30
living in Brum
born by the sea

#31
our shelters
bombed again
burning people alive

#32
Karachiites wait
for water and gas

#33
the speaker of the house
ignores Diane Abbott
forty six times

#34
after the party
we go skinny dipping

#35
remembering cicadas
and moonlit pines
my son et lumiére

#36
his repellent
aquascutum suit

#37
Auntie Joan tells me
I am and will always be
her favourite nephew

#38
we make a heart
with two red cable ties

#39
every so often
the Aston Expressway
is three lanes in and out

#40
migrant workers grow
tasteless Dutch tomatoes

#41
Yorkshire pudding
and gravy for starters
to save on meat

#42
frozen blue fingers
craving some warmth

#43
the trio wins first prize
for the snow sculpture
of Lord Vishnu

#44
Picasso steals
stolen Iberian masks

#45
I avert my eyes
as the shrouded body
rushes through the Medina

#46
he makes songs
of voicemail messages

#47
a passing siren
demonstrates
the Doppler effect

#48
I think you’ll find it’s
Crick, Watson and Franklin

#49
a Chinese lantern
from the Fort
for my Dad

#50
these days they fuck less
but it lasts longer

#51
some folk know
the price of everything
and the value of nowt

#52
the man with the gnarled hands
sells only eggs

#53
as one
a stadium of swifties
against the patriarchy

#54
Chang’e brings back
bits of rock from the moon

#55
white truffle hunters
take out their dogs
for the first catch of the year

#56
the carp notices
a change in temperature

#57
her family
plan a proxy walk
in the Langdales

#58
a heart carved into
the bark of an oak tree

#59
the afterlife
of dead people’s phone numbers
you can’t delete

#60
next door’s bluebells
bully the grape hyacinths

#61
pissed as a fart
he wobbles off stage
at the Spring Fling

#62
I open the windows
to let out the dust

#63
concertina wire
forcing us down the
Philadelphi Corridor

#64
one stent two stent
three stent more

#65
chasing the devils out
into the cold
silvery moonlight

#66
it’s easy to see
the footprints of my prey

#67
a shape of Texas
ingrained from
frenetic calculus dreams

#68
TikTok teaches Ishmail
how to draw a killer shark

#69
Hudertwasser calls
his uneven floors
symphonies for our feet

#70
an older oboist
tells me to breathe

#71
as if to mock them
she removes their carnation
and eats it in one

#72
writing up a hot mountain
with holes in it

#73
the lava lamp
takes her straight back
to when they were first married

#74
we are changing
the way the earth moves

#75
my son tells me
that he’s going to be
a tractor driver

#76
speaking Welsh
in Patagonia

#77
some mornings
I switch off the radio
before the news repeats

#78
the lark brings the owl
endless cups of tea

#79
an asbestos tile
falls from the roof
into everyone’s fears

#80
Colossendeis
megalonyx spawn

#81
Ostara
we take of our clothes
and dance in the woods

#82
the crab hides away
until her new shell hardens

#83
Ben Ali, Gaddafi
Mubarak and Saleh
all fall

#84
high school friends teach her
how to protest peacefully

#85
new videos released
tasered, stamped
and kicked in the head

#86
it don’t begin until the
pumpkin spice says so

#87
we chuck the last slats
of Grandad’s shed
onto the bonfire

#88
rabbits seeking warmth
in a side pocket

#89
I find confetti
in my wedding suit
from nineteen eighty one

#90
the first coconut palm
grows from Tuna’s head

#91
to be honest
I eat snowballs
the whole year round

#92
people whose hearts
are pierced by ice

#93
tinted windows
the red balloon empties
into the driver’s lungs

#94
that grey plaggy bag
is really a heron

#95
crack slab dandelion
forgotten urban
pocket parks

#96
the lapwing makes
a beautiful tumble

#97
unsettled
by the threat
of racist riots

#98
breathing out black mould
into the sea air

#99
she tells me she comes
from a long line of
lighthouse keepers

#100
the doors open
for the students’ return