Cool to have a new poem, written for this book in fact, in a new anthology, entitled Slovakia in Poems, edited by Eleni Cay and available here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Slovakia-Poems-Eleni-Cay/dp/1737405415/
My poems is about my last trip to Bratislava, going the dinosaur park there and other adventures, it has an epigraph by my collaborator zuzana husarova and has also been translated into Slovakian for the book, with an excerpt below.
All but 2 pairs had never met each other before the night itself. From the 18 poets participating, travelling in from 12 nations across the continent, virtually none had established friendships. Yet, by the end of the night, a night that went on long after I went home, it was clear that a community had been made and relationships which would last years had begun. I can't emphasise enough how the collaborative creative act and the diffusion of energy away from the singular, representative, pre-written poetry, creates closeness and community and energy and openness. Quite amazing to witness on this night, almost the perfect evidence for what I spend quite a lot of my time talking about, theorising behind the Enemies project. The most gratifying thing was the poets themselves feeling they had had a generous and memorable experience, one where they were treated with hospitality and due respect. For me it was a great privilege to see so many friends, Christodoulos Makris, Gabriele Labanauskaite, Christoph Szalay, Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir, Ville Hytonen and co, whom I had only known before in their countries, or during a festival. And to meet so many new poets. Every collaboration was distinct and dynamic in it's own way and many remarked it was the best Camarade they'd been to. All the videos are here: http://www.theenemiesproject.com/europeancamarade
And working with Endre Ruset, a friend for many years now, was wonderful. We had written a poem with ascending lines corresponding to the Fibonacci sequence, and then planted lines with other poets in the audience, so as our collaboration grew in number, so the number of voices would multiply too, and become intermittently choral.
It capped a great run for me with events and performances, each one has been a special experience and motivating to keep on, keep curating and creating together. And keep travelling, extending reach and asking poets from all over the world to visit us in London.
The Enemies project presents: Slovakian poetry in collaboration
One of the best things
I’ve done, getting poetry to travel me. I try and only do things that somehow
lead to a generative experience that somehow lead to some ambiguous feeling of
fulfilment that equates to being happy and positive towards other human beings
in the face of the obvious arbitrary coldness and fragility of being alive etc… To be flown,
housed, fed and exposed to an amazing city, generous people and wholly
authentic expressions of living in language all because Ive written some stuff
down is absurd enough to render ridiculous the notion that I might not be
buoyed by the experience and I was and am. The beginning of many new things and
a multitude of experiences that only leave me better.
DAY ONE: arrived, looked
after, sent to the floating hotel, the Botel, on the Danube, with Mariano
Peyrou, a Spanish poet who I’ve known about for years but never met. Really a
great person to begin the thing with, as he’s unpretentious, honest and clever.
I need to visit Madrid, sounds like an immense amount happening there. Shown to
the restaurant where we can get free meals all week. Beerhall northern European
meatcheesedumplingbrown. I’dve ballooned into a full chunk if I ate there all the
days, so I didn’t. Meeting all the poets, from as far as India, I’m the only
Britisher, thanks fuck. 
The readings were again
quite memorable. Robert Rybek, a Polish poet, front kicked the mic off its
stand before cursing out the audience and really digging into some weight.
Really breathtaking, it was completely genuine, completely authentic. Kato
Djavakhashvili read, all the way from Tbilisi, Tozan Alkan from Istanbul,
Gerhard Falkner from Berlin and then the electronic poetry performances – Jorg
Piringer was a force of nature with his visual concrete animation soundwork,
and Heike Fiedler, a revelation from Switzerland, mixing languages and
improvising with great aplomb.
DAY THREE: I upped early
again and walked an hour or two down the Danube before cutting in to the
outskirts to visit the Botanical gardens, and then one of the best fucking Zoos
Ive ever visited. I got quite emotional meeting the bear. I got to touch a
fucking baby meerkat. There was a white tiger and a red panda. The whole thing
was mental. And they had a dinopark was animatronic dinosaurs that could only
move one appendage. Must have cost a bomb. So weird it was one of the happiest
mornings I can remember, pumped on coffee, music in, animals right in my fat
face.
Final night of readings,
quite a male lineup, chest puff. But Ville Hytonen! Ive wanted to meet Ville
for ages, hearing of his great work through Pekko Kappi, one of the best
performers Ive worked with on my events. Great to hear his brogue, Anselm Hollo
resurrected quickly. Ville is in Talinn now, Im definitely going to visit him
next summer, and probably write with him too. Daniel Cundari was amazing too, a
dapper gent from Calabria, living in Granada, he really upped the emotion with
some severe youthful panache. Jason Mashak, an American living in the Czech
Republic was great too, such a decent bloke, very humble, and his work was
graceful and funny. And Louis read, growling out some jazz work that
capitivated. After the break Erik Simsik, who seems to be right on the front of
the younger avant garde in Slovakia and then Olga Pekova, who created a
beautiful, vulnerable / inverted penetrative moment to end the fest with,
collaborating with nudity and a boxharp. 
