Author: antoniazen
Word-weaver and artist. I'm Co-founder of Nott Normal; a Nottinghamshire based independent accessible, adaptive and gently provocative arts collaboration. Resident story-weaver for set of virtual Cottage in the Woods courses by Yelala from late autumn 2020, early Spring 2021. My writing and art have recently been part of Poems on Prescription, the National Museum of Justice's (UK) acclaimed Letters of Restraint, and The National Holocaust Memorial Centre's (UK) What is Testimony? Art and written work has appeared in various independent publications including LeftLion, Miknaf Haaretz, and Proliterat. I'm a warrior of various disabilities and chronic illnesses with an MA in Human Security (Peace and Human Development). I've worked in creative conflict resolution, sustainability & interfaith work. I stood for parliament (& local gov) in 2015, getting 9.9%, in the top 20 national results for the party. I've since left politics unless you count negotiating between three cats and a laptop. I love animals, my favourite humans, wild landscapes, accessible cities and the sea.
To Speak
I have learnt to speak;
I have learnt to speak in silence when my voice was gone,
in mimes, memes and gesticulations with one arm,
I have learnt to speak in rhythms when my limbs were
free,
I have learnt to speak within the forms my body allows me,
I learnt to speak again,
again,
again,
again,
….
if and when
my voice is gone
as voices one day do,
when they speak of all I’ve done
I hope they’ll say this too;
I learnt to speak.
To Remain Me
To Remain Me I paint freedom past restrictions, Admiring the contradictions My love sees creativity Within my skill to remain me, Gone are the forms I knew before, Yet I’m still a dancer at core; I dance with words now, to be free Within my skill; to remain me, He speaks of how I master…
Dear Ministers
Originally posted on The 48%:
Dear Ministers, Oh, dear ministers, Oh dear, ministers, I have listened, ministers, To the speeches you gave, I have seen you, leaders, How some choose to behave, I offer up broken couplets Too messy to make the grade, Like the Eton Mess you serve us; Dominic Raab You’ve had a fair…
To All I was Before (poem)
I often speak of all I was before, Those ghosts carried ever in my casement, Echoing, like the voices of the wars I traversed, yet now I feel displacement, Life in pause, forbidden summits, woods, shores, Shops, parties, pavements, Vanished continents, consonants, confidence, The family, colleagues; friends I see no more; Those ghosts carried…
The Wyverns of King’s Cross Station
Finsterhuf and Zauberdorf by Antonia Sara Zenkevitch For those who like Harry Potter, fantasy, historic fiction, steampunk journeys, escapism or a read of a good free book, I’m proud to say that I’ve unleashed my not so inner child to write The Library of Lost Wands. The first chapter, plus a lot of art work…
Indices
I write of lives in indices, Scenes sketched within margins Of halts for breath in sentences, Of freedom in parenthesis In our secret garden, I write of lives in ink; Hers inscribed in water In quiet apocalypse Others would call order, I write of lives, Their curve in words At boundary lines To…
Wild Forever
Wild Forever Welcome to my wild forever Born of the forests of my mind, An acorn in every letter Of words that no one can fetter Though my body cannot get there, Bones and sinew left behind, Welcome to my wild forever, Born of the forests of my mind. Antonia Sara Zenkevitch
Inspiration Porn
I’m not your inspiration porn For you to sensationalize As your source of motivation For your more abled-bodied lives, Not your inspiration Or measure of your skill, A Paralympian Nor life uncured to kill, I’m not your porn, Objectified For you to own Or criticize, Not your Provocation Your stimulus or spur;…
Antonia Sara Zenkevitch 