top of page

JP Seabright

back

next

the poet

JP Seabright is a queer disabled writer living in London. They have four solo pamphlets published: Fragments from Before the Fall, No Holds Barred, The Insomniac’s Almanac, Traum/A and the collaborative works GenderFux and MACHINATIONS. They have been published in journals such as The Rialto, One Hand Clapping, Fourteen Poems, Culture Matters, Under the Radar and 14 Magazine, as well as nominated for Best of the Net, The Pushcart Prize and The Forward Prizes.

the poems

Dungeness

00:00 / 01:04
SoundCloud_Sharing.png

                        The shingle glistens suggesting buried 

                        treasure under a bleached whale of a sky, 

                        grey smoke mingles with ashtray clouds, 

                        a nuclear desert crunches underfoot. 


                        The hum of the reactors is silent now, 

                        the world's contracted thus, 

                        blue-feathered birds curl and call 

                        over a dilapidated corrugated shack. 


                        Time stands still. Cronus and Chroma 

                        collide where stone solicits sky, 

                        the air itself imbued with solace 

                        and the metallic taste of sea. 


                        Stories of those who sought a living 

                        as scattered flotsam on a desolate shoreline, 

                        are lost in the rags of time. Dungeness 

                        is less a place and more a state of mind.

Clothe the Night
with Stars, My Love

00:00 / 01:43
SoundCloud_Sharing.png

            in  the  sunshine.  your  horse.  the  forest.  hungry  and  frail.

            the woods  are washed. with  the orb  of  broad  waves. eyes

            disdain  the  world.   and  the  cough  of  the  poet  sings  of

            flowers   in   the   stream.  the   autumn   of   the   west.   the

            splendour  of  the  moon.  this  wilderness  of death.  so vast

            and  beautiful.  dust  strobes.  the  self  is  still.  our  faith has

            dispersed.  peacefully.  noiseless  and   few.   a  gap  in  the

            clouds.   an   impossible   sun.   its   curtain  hangs  with  the

            heavens. abandon  those  who  rest  in  the  shade.  wear the

            storms of  men  and  brides.  acrid  in  the  stream.  rainbow

            shadows.  like  a  birthday.   heavy  and  decorous.   starlight

            wanders  at  the  threshold.  feeble  yet  found.   clothing the

            night with stars.  the calm of the sun.  a  servant  of  the past.

            a bright steed  mingles in the water.  streaming of stars. your

            screeching.   eyes  of  the  sea.   winged  with  the  bursting.

            overwrought  and  mournful.  felicitas  seeking the sun.  one

            life  of  a  day. a  garden  flower. the sound. and  sometimes

            the heavens. murky and white. lovefull.

Nocturnal Omissions

00:00 / 02:56
SoundCloud_Sharing.png

         : I am a ghost of a chance :  a weeping husk of a human : scattered

         remnants of once-functional behaviour : barely grasped : longed for 

         : no  longer  attainable : I  am my  own  undoing :  an  unravelling :

         this unbelongingness :  this :  this unwarranted fuckering bliss : this

         sickening lurch : I  play paper scissors  stone  with  my  memories :

         each  trauma  crushing  :   cancelling  out  the  next  :   the  act  of

         obliteration : a  removal of meaning : how joyous! : a negation and

         a  revelation : a quivering  flatline : cut  down  to the quick and the

         dead  of  our own true selves : whatever that is : this : skeletal kiss : 

         embryonic kick : fuck the shame away : in  the dark : on your own :

         your  phone’s  flickering  hiss : a faithful companion : outside : the

         city is on heat : your body a hot flush of mistaken identities : mixed

         media  on  rye : the city is  a hex : your  body a  burnt match : fire

         flares  the  streets  :  your body stains  the sheets : with thoughts of

         filth :  nightmare  ejaculate : lick  your  bones clean : and yet : it is

         darkest before the dawn : this : is a lie : sometimes the dawn never

         comes : sometimes the darkness is within us : some have darkness

         thrust  upon  them :  the city is  a hellscape : life is hard : don’t let

         anyone  tell  you otherwise :  the  utter aliveness of it all : this : this

         relentless existence : sometimes I think about dying : peace for our

         time : go home and  get  a  nice quiet sleep : looking back on this

         half-century : a  battlefield  : these scars  : wars fought : sometimes

         won : mostly  lost : losing : still : the slow  decline to senility : I ask

         for pity : as I age : for despite all best intentions : I come to closely

         resemble  : the man I most despise : tomorrow never dies : but this

         darkness before the  dawn : this what if this is all there is : and yet :

         lighter days are coming : is a lie : I tell myself :

Publishing credits

Dungeness / Clothe the Night with Stars, My Love:

  exclusive first publication by iamb

Nocturnal Omissions: Impossible Archetype (Issue 11)

bottom of page