Welcome to Phoenix’s world-changing Salon

A port­manteau. A treas­ure trove. A time cap­sule. A poetry book. A diary. A photo album. Memor­ies. Dreams. Wishes. Hopes. An open letter to an unsus­pect­ing public. An intim­ate con­fes­sion to close friends. A declar­a­tion of intent. A whis­per of love. A per­sonal record. An exper­i­ment in intro­spec­tion. A per­form­ance space. A polit­ical rant. A wild yawp. Why do any of us pub­lish our words and images online? Come, dream with me.

bath scene {for niels biehl, who ran the bath}

by | Aug 14, 2003 | ,

I am heat and sap-riddled slug­gish pulse through skin­sack, breath comes shal­low, slow there is steam­heat in my drum­throb chest, water­heat on my sweat­brow feet hung limpid over tub-edge taking in air like a dog’s tongue. the ocean­foam is like skyc­louds i soak in…

Ode to the bath

by | Aug 14, 2003 |

At Christin­a’s in Hol­land (yay!!!). 2.17am. Just had first ser­i­ous long, hot bath since leav­ing Aus­tralia. Some of you may know me and baths. Anyhow… bath scene in white, purple and blue for niels bijl, who ran the bath I am heat and sap-riddled slug­gish pulse…

Paris for the monetarily impaired

by | Aug 12, 2003 |

My advice for the down-at-heel in Paris. Step one, pur­chase a “what’s on in paris” book­let from a street news vendor (40 centimes). This will inform you of all the cool free hap­pen­ings around town, includ­ing funky music at the new fake Paris-Plage (sand, palm trees,…

Ahhhh…

by | Aug 8, 2003 |

I like Paris. I do. This is my third or fourth time here, and as cities go, I like it. Wide tree-lined streets, a lan­guage I speak well enough to under­stand 90% of what’s said around me by strangers at out­door cafes, thus feed­ing my eaves­drop­ping obses­sion, and…

La France

by | Aug 6, 2003 |

Can’t find punc­tu­ation on dumb french key­boards. A and Q reversed. Will updqte when back on own ‘puter. Argh. Have not typed hunt and peck for decades.

Meditations on modernity

by | Aug 4, 2003 |

Wow. Gug­gen­heim Bilbao: from Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons and a side­t­rip to Calder. Four dec­ades of art from the Broad Col­lec­tion and a whole floor of the beau­ti­ful mobiles of Alex­an­der Calder. And after years and years as a Situ­ation­ist afi­cianado, I finally got to see…

Bilbao

by | Aug 3, 2003 |

Wel­come to the first night of my life in a loc­a­tion where there is active sep­ar­at­ist ter­ror­ism (for those who don’t know, that’s the ETA who want the Pais Vasco (Basque Coun­try) to secede from Spain). In the last week or so, there have been three bombs, mostly against…

Leaving Toledo…

Leaving Toledo…

by | Aug 3, 2003 |

I feel strange leav­ing Toledo. It’s not like I’m actu­ally leav­ing, more like I’m leav­ing home to go on a voyage around Europe. I keep think­ing I’ll just be gone for a few months. If you want more pretty photos of the river, go back to the entry from the other day,…

I’m leaving tomorrow

by | Aug 2, 2003 |

So, since I’m leav­ing for Bilbao tomor­row, I thought I’d post a poem I wrote after the Museum the other day. toledo, 1492 So, take this key. We are leav­ing tomor­row. They say: sell everything. They say: there is noth­ing here for you any­more, noth­ing but death. I am…

El Rio Tajo

by | Jul 31, 2003 |

I fell in love with Toledo all over again tonight. Sick of the tour­ists, I decided to walk down the other side of the city, and see the other bridge, the Puente de San Martin. It’s even more beau­ti­ful down there, and I dis­covered that there’s a path by the riverside…

Toledo, 1492

by | Jul 31, 2003 | ,

so, take this key. we are leav­ing tomor­row. they say: sell everything. they say: there is noth­ing here for you any­more, noth­ing but death. i am stub­born. they will not have this house. i was born in this house, its enclos­ures were my play­ground as a boy. here in this…

the alcohol

by | Jul 30, 2003 |

For dr_nic and the_christian. San­gria is stronger than you think. It isn’t just wine and fruit. There’s brandy and cognac in there too. All up, about 20% alco­hol. €2. You guys would *love* the way they pour drinks here. Take one high­ball. Add three large cubes…

Fugaz

by | Jul 30, 2003 |

rooftop shoot­ing stars the warm cream /yellow glow of lights from sur­round­ing houses the voices on the hot air occa­sional breezes talk of the left and power and lan­guage and words fall­ing in amongst light and smoke wine and gazpacho, laughter neigh­bour­ing televisions…

Phoenix Emberstone

Phoenix Emberstone

pas­sion­ate polit­ical poet

These are poems and mean­der­ings that made their way to the page. I’d love to hear what you think of them. Want to get in touch? Drop me a line!

Photo of Rosanne Bersten

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I am also known as Ro Ber­sten, a com­mu­nic­a­tions spe­cial­ist with more than 20 years’ exper­i­ence. See my CV and pro­fes­sional projects.