the poet
John Adlam lives in Brixton, South London, where he's a group psychotherapist and independent activist psychosocial researcher. A trustee of the Survivor's Poetry collective, John's also a member of The Poetry Society's Hill Poets Stanza. He regularly performs at open mic events – both online and around London – and his poems have appeared in various journals and anthologies, including Atrium, Lothlorien Poetry Journal and After...
the poems
Storm over Lerici
For Jude Luciano Mezzetta
A fierce rain has whipped
at the castle walls, lashing
the lemon blossoms, magenta
welts of chrysanthemum
dripping. There is no mercy yet
for Luciano as he lies,
unquiet, snarled
in the haze and swelter
of a bilious Ligurian sky.
Over cappuccio at Porto Venere
I stir and I sense his restive
urgency. He and I
could be kin: two old bears
bristling for the scratching,
no bark of cedar or fir to back
against. Perhaps,
like Byron, I shall swim
across the Golfo dei Poeti to greet him,
piercing the lapis green glaze
of the ghost-deep waters between.
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Cuauhtémoc, standing
his ground
Dusk smoulders paprika
over Lake Texcoco.
I am the Eagle Descending.
Put my feet to the fire,
why don't you? Avarice
flares in your furnace eyes.
Oh, but I do understand,
my conquistador –
you are come this far
for pride and for plunder.
Yours is the broiling fury
of the warrior Sun.
Loose now upon us
the ruin of your helium storm.
Deus ex machina
Was that you – hard-shouldered, sandy-beached,
coalescent in the glimmerish distance – auguring
sibylline remedies for oh-so-familiar breakdowns?
Van on the cassette player, intonating Slim Slow
Slider. The amber sun subsiding in my wing-
mirror like a traffic light – dimming beyond reach.
Publishing credits
Storm over Lerici: Snow lit rev (Issues 15 & 16)
Cuauhtémoc, standing his ground / Deus ex machina:
exclusive first publication by iamb