UNESCO Creative Cities Project ‘Poetic Encounters’

Posted: Friday Jun 05, 2020

Initiated by Heidelberg UNESCO City of Literature, 51 poets from 28 UNESCO Cities of Literature came together to create a book titled ‘Poetic Encounters’.

The book was printed on handcrafted paper made in Fabriano UNESCO City of Crafts and Folk Art. Fabriano (Italy) has a reknowned history spanning centuries of producing superior paper and is dedicated to retaining traditional and innovative printmaking practices. For this collaborative project papers made in Fabiano were sent across the UNESCO cities and selected writers were able to add their handwritten poetry. Completed pages were returned to Heidelberg then on to Fabiano where the unique book was bound.

The book was gifted to the Mayors of Krakow and Katowice by the mayors of Heidelberg and Fabriano at a special presentation during the annual meeting of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network on June 13th 2018.

Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature showcased poems by Rhian Gallagher 'A Quiet Place’ and Iona Winter ‘intuit’.

You can watch a video on the making of the book here: https://vimeo.com/274869565

The Quiet Place

I cannot set a colour against it
or rest it on my knee.
The sound of a glove pulled on a hand,
amber, through a glass, through a tapestry,
the quiet place opens like water.
As I look into the greyness, as the children
look under the stones for the light,
as the tongue of the bells mid-week
calls to a ship or a wedding.
The quiet place.
After the song ends,
after the chemistry – a cooling sky.
As if I were listening to miles
slowly. It’s where I outstay my time,
the small boat tied,
the mother ship anchored in the bay.

© Rhian Gallagher

intuit

listen to quiet in the rustle of leaves

and ferocious applause from the seventh wave

see beauty in harakeke choked by convolvulus

and respect the latticework of a bruise

smell the sweetness of rotten fruit beneath trees

and tī kōuka flowers at night

taste the depth of freshly turned earth

and the honesty of blood

feel satisfaction at the release of a scab

and the delicious surges contained in a kiss

sense comfort in ancestral knowledge

and trust in oneself always

Iona Winter