ZOOMING WITH THE 1000 MONKEYS ON 4TH FEBRUARY 2025

Anniversaries, musicians and water  

It's always interesting to see themes emerging and sometimes coalescing among the poets who attend each meeting of the talented Monkeys. This month saw Holocaust Day directly inspiring poems from Christine Vial, Anne Alexander, Richard Carpenter and Aaron Barschak, and two translations by Timothy Adès of poems by Robert Desnos, who died a victim of the Nazi concentration camps. Richard had an account of a lady who escaped a similar fate in Auschwitz.  Aaron's poem was as much about Gaza as about the Holocaust — and about the redefinition of words in our century — genocide; gender, women, vaccines — all politically manipulated. Anne 's 'Peace Gardens' called for peace and justice regardless of race or religion. She and Christine had written their poems to be performed at the opening of a memorial garden in Enfield, as members of the Brondesbury Poetry group. Christine's 'Inked' referred to the forcible tattooing of serial numbers on concentration camp inmates.

Derek Sellen celebrated Chopin, with 'Music by the Pianist in Old Age' and told us of a little-known aspect of the life of Schrödinger (of the famous 'cat in a box' theory) — the scandal his libertarian love-life caused when he went to teach in Ireland (where he had fled from Austria) and Princeton University in the USA!

Water featured in the poems of Jenna Plewes, who had two poems about fishermen and fish, and Ray Pool had three lyrical poems on river events: an account of the sinking of The Marquess of Granby on the Thames reminded us of that tragic event twenty-one years ago; his portrait of a musician friend who lived beside the same river was a happier memory. Mantz Yorke remembered the Morecambe Bay cocklers who were swept to their death in the rising tide, also 21 years ago, and told of precarious living in 'House of Cards'. 

The coming of Spring inspired some denial in Christine's 'Bulb' ('the price of growing is just too steep') ... but Tony Watts went for an entertaining rural walk with 'Five Poets on a Walk in the Country'. He also made us smile with 'The Anthropologist' as the subjects of an expert study turned the tables on their observer. Evanthe Blandy gave us a sonnet portrait of 'The Market Trader' and a sympathetic hearing of a monologue by a sufferer from dementia.

 Rod Whitworth's response to Max Ernst's 'The Petrified City' — the phrase 'eugenic hygenics' occurred to him with echoes of the Nazi era in which Ernst developed his paintings and collages. 'An Answer' was his articulate and poetic response to a Chinese poem, 'The Answer'.

Marek Urbanowicz read three of his previously published poems with very detailed explanations of their context. Unfortunately, my notes were not detailed enough to report accurately on these! But he has provided a comment (see below) to clarify my previously inaccurate account, for which I must apologise to him.

The next readings by The 1000 Monkeys are on Tuesday 4th March. We'll be inviting offers to contribute to that meeting in a mailing on 24th February to the group. Everyone on the 1000 Monkeys mailing list will be sent the link to join on March 2nd.