Ben Barton

Ben Barton Poems

Ben Barton Biography

**LATEST NEWS** BEN'S FIRST COLLECTION, 'THE RED BOOK' IS OUT NOW! ! AVAILABLE TO ORDER FROM ALL GOOD BOOKSTORES (ISBN 1905599307) OR BY VISITING WWW.BENBARTON.CO.UK Ben Barton's poems have appeared in Acorn, Ancient Heart, Cauldron, Delivered, Isibongo, Jugular, Linkway, Masque, Merely Pictures, New Horizon, Panda, Parameter, The Poetry Church, Poetry Greece, Poetry Kit Magazine, Poetry Now, Red Fog, Roadworks, Scorched Earth, Scriptor, Secret Attic, Sentinel, Springboard, Taoism & Poetry, Time Haiku, Writing Magazine, The Ugly Tree, X Magazine and countless small-press magazines. In 1997 he won first prize in the Ottakar's/Faber poetry competition for National Poetry Day in his home county of Kent. The following year his poem The Re-Birth Remembered repeated this success by winning the competition again. The poem was also a winner in the National Competition and was published in the winners anthology. He was sixteen. Reviews at the time called him ‘Britain’s youngest, most published poet’. Ben edited Words for Mercy, a poetry anthology for the charity Tearfund which included contributions by Seamus Heaney, amongst others. He has also performed work as part of the Canterbury Streetlevel Festival and was awarded a prize by Poetry Update. As a gay writer, he is working to break down barriers and to share his work through performance and publishing. He has featured in the bestselling Writing Magazine, having his work reviewed and discussed in the Poetry Workshop column and being interviewed about his career (Poetry For The Future, October 2004) . He also been interviewed for pieces in Dear Dalai, e-poets, Poettext.com, Queertheory, Sentinel and Shergood Forest. Ben has worked for the BBC on their Video Nation project, presenting the short film No One Reads Poetry in which he vented his frustration at the lack of poetry readership and performed his work. The film has also been included in the Your Stories project, available to watch on the digital TV channel BBCi. The film has also featured in several magazine articles. His continued work with the BBC has included a selection of his poems published on the website bbc.co.uk and broadcasting his poetry on digital radio. He works full time as a writer for a major British travel company. Currently, there are also a number of videopoems of Ben's work circulating on the internet. For more information, visit: www.benbarton.co.uk)

The Best Poem Of Ben Barton

Commandment No.5

My father is a stranger to me
He never turns-up uninvited
Sitting cautiously on the sofa
Genteel.
He waits - never asks
for a mug of tea.

My father hasn't always been
This stranger in my life
We were close, once
He organised my life, an official referee
Strict.

He holds my gaze, unsure
if he loves me…

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