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Poet David Subacchi was clearly a hit with the City Voices audience , reading from his collections 'First Cut’ (2012) ‘Hiding in Shadows’ (2014) and 'Not Really a Stranger' (2016) This was in evidence from the number of books he sold, which he says was a lovely surprise. David also read from a short pamphlet containing poems about the Easter Rising in Ireland in 1916. Many thanks to David travelling all the way from Wrexham, North Wales.   As David's surname suggests, his parents were Italian immigrants to Wales. In addition to English and Welsh, David is also fluent in the Italian language and instantly bonded with our own resident Italian novelist Steve Emanuel, who was born in Sicily. David and Steve are pictured here with CV member Lily Meigh. It was a shame our fellow-member Josie Kinnersley could not be there as she also has Italian roots.  Yours truly with David, who was studying at Liverpool University when I was at night school in my home city, in addition to the day job with the City Council. We were both frequenters of Liverpool's first pizza restaurant in the very early 70's, the original Pizzaland. Their standard plate was a slice of pizza with baked potato and coleslaw. They took "luncheon vouchers" (who remembers them?!) and you could even use your vouchers to purchase a carafe of wine! Maybe we saw each other in Pizzaland, who knows? It was very popular with students and I was often there with my then-best friend and others from the college. We all thought it was the height of sophistication!
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 David Subacchi was born in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion in 1955 into a family representing Italian immigration to Wales. It was the death of David’s father in 2011 that inspired him to begin writing poetry seriously. Retirement from his ‘day job’ as a senior civil servant in 2014 provided the opportunity to increase his output of poetry mainly in English but increasingly in Welsh also. David quotes his main poetic influences as Wales, Italy and Liverpool, the city he says he fell in love with. David is a member of Wrexham’s Voicebox Poetry Group, Viva Voce Wrexham, Cross Border Poets, Liverpool’s Dead Good Poets, A Lovely Word (Everyman Theatre), Liver Bards, North West Poets, Wirral Bards, Whitchurch Writers and Chester Poets. He is active with the Theatre Wales network and local community arts networks in Wales. He performs his poetry frequently at live spoken word events and elsewhere and he has appeared twice in his home town at Aberystwyth Arts Centre. In a very short time David has built up an excellent reputation for the high quality of his reading and performance as well as his poetry. As well as his poetry collections ‘First Cut’ (2012) ‘Hiding in Shadows’ (2014) David’s poetry has been published in numerous on line and hard copy poetry magazines internationally. He has contributed to several anthologies. David is currently working on a collection of his poems in the Welsh Language for publication. At City Voices David will be talking to the group and reading from his new collection 'Not Really a Stranger' published by Cestrian Press.
Your feet - a refugee mother remembers I remember your feet Coming from me; the first thing I saw And your screams and your crumpled face A breech birth And ever after, different to everyone I remember your feet Going to class; in sturdy brown shoes And your singing and your smiling face A bright girl My shining light. Different to everyone I remember your feet Dirty and bare; as we huddled in the boat And your crying and the fear on your face Be brave girl On this journey we’re no different to anyone I remember your feet Thrashing in water; cries all around And your screaming and the waves on your face Swim girl Like I taught you. We’ll stick close to everyone I remember your feet Poking out from the blanket, a strange shape on the shore And my wailing at your white lifeless face You were my girl And I know you were no different than anyone © Debbi Voisey 2016 This poem from one of our new members, Debbi Voisey, was inspired by a talk given to the group by aid-worker Emily Adams. Emily has been a volunteer at Lampedusa immigrant reception centre and
her talk "Managing with creativity" described conditions in the camp and how creativity can be an outlet for emotions which are running high. In 2014 alone, 170,100 migrants arrived in Italy by sea, a 296% increase compared to 2013. 141,484 of the travelers ferried over from Libya. Most of the migrants had come from Syria, Eritrea and various countries in West Africa.  Debbi edited and wrote articles for a popular U2 fanzine and says that her most exciting experience from those heady days was a 40 minute telephone interview with her hero Bono! However Debbi's heart lies in fiction, and she is a reviewer at online platform “The Short Story (TSS)” (www.theshortstory.co.uk) Debbi recently joined City Voices, and is working hard to get her novel published whilst juggling a job with DHL in communications. Debbi can be found twittering @DublinWriter and on Facebook at “My Way by Moonlight.” (www.facebook.com/dublinwriterdebbivoisey) www.debbivoisey.co.uk
Debbi has been published in the Bath Short Story Award Anthology 2015 after making the long list with "Death in the nest", which is a brilliant achievement. Our newest member has already infected us all with her enthusiasm and friendly approach, and we are delighted to have her on board. |
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