Haemal fountain’s gargoyles
Slurping by convolvulus.
Suntrapped at velvet curtains,
Sabrina Roper squirms brainsick.
One rootless leaf in backwash.
Filming ‘Blood Shot Silk’ – Deleted Scene (35)
Anticipate Camera 6
Releasing itself
From all its characters,
Discernibly wandering
Upon a speckled floor,
It’s destined to scrutinize the overblown mirror.
The past continuous
Is restored…
Sammy limps – apparelled in an evening dress,
Leg-o-mutton sleeves –
Gore smutching lips,
Ensnared in a simple frame
Where chicanery is spared.
Filming ‘Blood Shot Silk’ – Deleted Scene (36)
Manola Dean waddles off, screen right.
We crushingly grasp as much as she.
Sammy moves near, looming at the door.
Bone chair, reddening cushion.
One maimed bass drum. The fluently bogus clop –
Geldings on cobbles.
Earwig headlong over lampshade.
As the credits bleed
Camera 2 loiters.
In 1998, Christopher Barnes won a Northern Arts writers award. In July 2000 he read at Waterstones bookshop to promote the anthology 'Titles Are Bitches'. Christmas 2001 he debuted at Newcastle's famous Morden Tower, doing a reading of his poems. Each year he reads for Proudwords lesbian and gay writing festival and partakes in workshops. 2005 saw the publication of his collection LOVEBITES, published by Chanticleer Press, 6/1 Jamaica Mews, Edinburgh.
On Saturday 16th August 2003, he read at the Edinburgh Festival as a Per Verse poet at LGBT Centre, Broughton St.
He also has a BBC web-page.
Christmas 2001, the Northern Cultural Skills Partnership sponsored him to be mentored by Andy Croft in conjunction with New Writing North. He made a radio programme for Web FM community radio about his writing group. October-November 2005, he entered a poem/visual image into the art exhibition the Art Cafe Project, and his piece Post-Mark was shown in Betty's Newcastle. This event was sponsored by Pride on the Tyne. He made a digital film with artists Kate Sweeney and Julie Ballands at a film making workshop called Out of the Picture, which was shown at the festival party for Proudwords. It contains his poem the Old Heave-Ho. He worked on a collaborative art and literature project called How Gay Are Your Genes, facilitated by Lisa Mathews (poet), which exhibited at the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle University, and included a film piece by the artist Predrag Pajdic in which Barnes read his poem On Brenkley St. The event was funded by the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Institute, Bio-science Centre at Newcastle's Centre for Life.
He was involved in the Five Arts Cities poetry postcard event which exhibited at the Seven Stories children's literature building. In May he had 2006 a solo art/poetry exhibition at The People's Theatre. The South Bank Centre in London recorded his poem "The Holiday I Never Had"; he can be heard reading it on poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record.asp?id=18456.
He has written poetry reviews for Poetry Scotland and Jacket Magazine, and in August 2007, made a film called 'A Blank Screen, 60 seconds, 1 shot' for Queerbeats Festival at the Star & Shadow Cinema Newcastle, reviewing a poem. On September 4 2010, he read at the Callander Poetry Weekend hosted by Poetry Scotland. He has also written art criticism for Peel and Combustus Magazines.
