The Flight of the Dragonfly Poetry Journal is the creation of two UK poets, Barbara Mercer and Darren Beaney. I stumbled upon the Flight of the Dragonfly and E-Journal on X, my go-to place to network all things poetry. Aptly named, the collaboration entails Spoken Word events held in Brighton and Zoom workshops, in which I became involved. It began in November 2022 when I put forward my name to read my poem The Miner’s Triumph at their online Spoken Word. Afterwards, I joined the Flights Writers and thus began the journey through numerous workshops and publication with the Flights E-Journal.
Fly Dragonfly Airways!
The workshops involve a 12 hour difference as the participants are all UK based. I’m the only foreigner! It’s like international travel but without jetlag. As I sit in a predawn gloom still clad in pyjamas, I converse with poets and watch the evening sun pour in through the windows of their homes and offices. A feast of accents flavour the discussions. I’m in England! Poetry – about maps, travel through exotic lands and unlikely adventures – become a conveyance of flight. A virtual airplane; a dragonfly of supernatural import!
Flights E-Journal
Inspired by a mid-winter stay at Okoroire Springs near Tirau, I wrote Alone at Dusk. It is a dreamy contemplation set within the womb-like enclave of secluded hot pools for which Okoroire is famous. To reach them, one must walk through a long forest path to a gate, whereupon an electronic key admits the visitor to the inner sanctum at the bottom of fern-lined steps. I sank into the inviting warmth, steam floating above the dark water, and gazed at the sapphire sky, Venus a bright sentinel above a line of trees. After a while, all the other bathers left and I was alone to journey in spirit as all poets do. Night softly descended. I spent two hours in heavenly solitude.
Sharing the poem on the Flight’s platform becomes a voyage, inviting visitors from abroad to partake in the magical Okoroire Springs – through words where one may sink one’s virtual body in the womb-like warmth of the Springs without leaving their living room. Or inspired, perhaps one day to travel in person to the very place.
Issue 10
Alone at Dusk is one of three poems published in Issue 10 of the Flights E-journal, which may be found here: https://flightofthedragonfly.com/elizabeth-barton/. They winged their way into the world in October 2023.
The Shape of Bliss
