Got Milk?

Tanvir Naomi BushCull, Photography, Poetry Leave a Comment

Hello you lovely lot, Are you well?  Many apologies for the long wait between updates but got a lot to tell you.  Need a coffee before we start? Milk? I’ll put the kettle on if you get the biscuits. Okay, here is the dish. The CULL special edition is going to be with you, the supporters, before Dec 2018 and the trade version out into the shops for around January 2019.

The Creative Writing Laboratory!

Tanvir Naomi BushCull, Poetry, Writing Leave a Comment

What on earth is a ‘Creative Writing Laboratory’ and why should I try one? Research has shown the incredible benefits of the arts on health; both mental and physical.  In the last couple of months alone I have come across new research providing greater scientific evidence of the powerful effects of expressive arts.  I heard, for instance, at the Culture, Health and Well Being Conference in Bristol this week, that changes occurring in the human genome, ‘turned on’ following severe […]

Ruth Hartley’s Birthday

Tanvir Naomi BushPoetry 4 Comments

Cheese, please! My Mum is the artist and writer Ruth Hartley. Last week we threw her a 70th birthday party. That was because she turned 70…not because we were trying to freak her out. My older sister baked cakes and made soups and dips and organised a tower of wonderful cheeses. There were old friends and new wines, speeches and thank yous and Silent John even sang her a song! A super do!

Milking it.

Tanvir Naomi BushPoetry, Visual Impairment 3 Comments

You know when you listen to your recorded voice..if you hear yourself on an answer phone or on an old cassette…and it sounds daft or just odd? Well, I feel the same way when I catch sight of my reflection or see myself in photos. ‘Who is that ridiculous woman?’ I hiss. ‘What a funny face. What an odd shape.’

Birthday Solstice

Tanvir Naomi BushPoetry 2 Comments

Holy smoke..what heppened to the time? must have been that vintage cider! Ladies and gentlement, tomorrow is the summer solstice and..yup..my birthday. Tis all a bit bemusing to be off an age where most people have children, mortgages, bald spots, and savings. I have …an over active imagination, an exhausted liver and always the feeling of discombobulation that makes me feel that i am still searching for something elusive , strange and truly beautiful. Maybe this year eh?

Urban Unbinding

Tanvir Naomi BushPoetry, Writing 1 Comment

The first law of dynamics states that for a thermodynamic cycle the sum of net heat supplied to the system and the net work done by the system is equal to zero. More simply, (thank God for Wikipedia) the First Law states that energy cannot be created or destroyed; rather, the amount of energy lost in a steady state process cannot be greater than the amount of energy gained. This rather makes the ‘Urban Rebound’ class at the gym a […]

Dirty Windshield

Tanvir Naomi BushDisability, Poetry, Visual Impairment 1 Comment

Dirty Windshield (In Space No One Can Hear You Scream.) The screen is cracked, Two bullet holes and The blackened spidery cracks Like septicaemia Creep Towards the veins and brain The shield is almost down, captains. Nothing can stop the Eleven Million Mile High walls of night Rushing at twice the speed of any light. We are the fragile gnat And just breath could now knock through And rage bore wider holes And the whisper of air As you rush […]

Friday after the funeral

Tanvir Naomi BushPoetry, Writing Leave a Comment

Teelo’s funeral was in Lusaka yesterday. They played reggae and handed out roses. In Zambian tradition it was an open coffin and everyone who saw said he looked peaceful. In fact Mrs. T, known for her acerbic and bitter take on life commented later to her daughter ‘There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with him to me, ‘ in an aggrieved tone that implied he might be faking. His great friend Mu did the eulogy and my father sent […]

Car crash takes my friend away

Tanvir Naomi BushPoetry, Writing 2 Comments

I was going to write about the golden light of autumn this weekend, about a friend’s new baby and about some quite funny stuff that happened last week…but a man was killed on Saturday night and his death changed everything. This man was about 6 foot but taller with the huge matted dreadlocks that he had been growing since he was in his 20’s. They were showing a little grey but not so you’d notice. He was what he would […]