Peter Devonald – Poet in Residence

Surfaces and Connections

Five Minute Love Story – explores the deepest connections, then absence, returning from the deep to mere surface. Communication devices change meaning, can we really be present when we’re taping on the phone or computer? We think therefore we am – but if we don’t think, are we not?

Codeword Puzzle – Sometimes connections can appear surface when there is such hidden depth. One moment is explored and explained – or is the reasoning mere surface? This poem stuck with me, even after publication, still toying with it.

Doctor Doctor – our bodies are interconnected complex things, if we lose connections we get ill. Western doctors tend to disconnect the functions of the body to just see specific individual organs rather than deal with the holistic whole. What are the consequences of seeing the surface rather than the deeper reality?

Help! I’m Trapped In My Computer – very aptly fits the theme of surfaces and connections – and our failure sometimes to be able to connect. This flash fiction / poem was the winner (over 25s!) Heart Of Heatons Poetry/Flash Fiction competition 2023 - featured in the November issue of The Heaton Post:

https://player.flipsnack.com/?hash=QkQ5Qjc4QkJEQzkrenVmYmZzM3RrNQ==

Help! I’m Trapped In My Computer

By Peter Devonald

I have fallen into my computer! Literally slipped in when I ran my trouble-shooter. One minute I was in Stockport, now I’m stuck in Berlin! Maybe I was sucked into a wormhole or maybe just my scanner? Will anyone ever get me out? I scream and scream and shout. I cry, I sigh, no reason why, but no one hears and no one sees, what will ever become of me?

I'm lost within my yawning boring diary app, when all I really want to do is have a nap. I seem to have found my own personal prison, when all I remember doing this morning was just having arisen. I don’t deserve to be imprisoned, so please come and help, or at least listen. I miss the joy of real communication, this electronic hell feels like damnation!

I find myself caught between meetings, drinks and January. All my appointments weigh heavy on my mind, all my tiresome emails suffocating and constraining. All I do is agitating, stuck in the computer and I’m not exaggerating! I’ve searched and searched and found no way out – there’s no place to go, I have such terrible doubts.

I am sure I had a life beyond this once, now I amble forever electronically, stuck between a microchip and the hard processor. Everything has become just virtual – I miss the magic of meeting the actual! Doing things in real life was so much more fulfilling, now all I seem to do all day is just boring form filling.

I spend my weary days in endless paperwork and social media, I can’t even find the encyclopaedia! I’ve even upset the motherboard now, turned their back and I’m ignored somehow. Even my google search just laughs at me, suggests to meditate to truly be free.

Will I have to live out my days in this gilded cage? I totally understand that minimalism is all the rage, but now I want to live, see the world and explore – I’ll do it so much better than before. I’ll be a better person and kind to all others, not stuck in here with the memory capacitor that smothers.

Please can you liberate me!? Find a way out of my CPU PC sea. My tummy already rumbles and grumbles, the fan’s full of dust and dreams of apple crumbles. Can’t cope with all these transistors and resistors, all I want to see is my mother and sister!

I’m drowning in empty information, even worse than most the population. Please find a way to rescue me from my electronic doom!

Or come and stay a while, there’s plenty of room. I feel the need for true connection, I’m sure it will alter my whole complexion. Everything will change with a little affection, my gilded cage transformed from retrospection. Here for my own protection, my weary circumspection.

Together we can finally be free – please someone come and rescue me!

>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<

All In The Mind Awards Evening_shortlist readings.jpg

Latest News

Shortlisted Saveas Writer's International Writing Competition All In the Mind 2023.
Event Awards Evening 16 December 6.30-6.45 via Zoom - £4 (free students)

Poem: The Day Before You Forget It All Completely

https://www.saveaswriters.co.uk/competitions/all-in-the-mind.html
https://www.saveaswriters.co.uk/events/

Shortlisted for The Allingham Festival Poetry Competition 2023

Poem: Nature Sings Thirteen Haikus For You
https://www.allinghamfestival.com/fiction-poetry-competitions

Poetic Map of Music - Southwark Festival Of Words

Featured on Twitter, social media, and website.

Celebration event for the project, including poets and recordings of poets:

Canada Water Library on the evening of Wednesday 13th December.

Poem: Vinyl Sings A Song For You

Metachrosis Issue 3 online and published – November 2023

Dying I Dream - https://metachrosislitmag.co.uk/metachrosis-issue-3/

Forget-Me-Not Press' Sixth Issue 'Feast' – online and published – December 2023