VEX BOMB 003

ISSUE 003

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VEX BOMB Poems from the Ventnor Exchange Spoken Word Collective

July 2025 Hello Friends It’s Ventnor Fringe month!

If you take a peek to your right, you’ll see all the wonderful things VEX is bringing you over the festival. This year is special for us as it’s a celebration of five years of our group and the fifth group show we’ve brought to the Fringe.

So, join us for Circus of Verse, come and write with us at a free workshop, or just listen to some chill poetry vibes in the park.

Whatever you decide to do, we can’t wait to welcome you.

Stay weird

🎪

Ben & Cody VEX BOMB Editors Catch VEX members performing solo at Fringe: Rhyme and Reason Fri 18th Jul at 18:30 Green World Tue 22nd Jul at 15:30 Smile Like You Mean It: Redux Thu 24th Jul at 15:30 Tim Cooper Presents MAWGIAS Fri 25th Jul at 20:45

26th Jul 18:15

adolescence, but make it msn and you are in my coffee cup again

emerging now like Thing

no I am in my coffee cup showering with the plug put in until there is no space for you to block my follicles squeegee the bathroom mirror no squeegee my wrists and fingers no squeeze squeeze my tongue it is not 2005 but it is not 2005 and it is not 2005 still your severed hand is suspended in time caught in a classroom and demolished to car park with the rest of 8S with my chair and yours back to back to back to back

oh so beloved! and oversalting my curry! and opening the oven door before my cupcakes are done! silly thing, Thing, silly thing you couldn’t know better and you could’ve known worse thank you, Thing I’ve been listening all night to the lyrics plastered over my year ten coursework because Gerard Way can outweigh my teenage voice like no other have you heard about 9/11 and Twilight? of course, of course a bit like how 80/20 made you, Thing a bit like thirteen-year-old-sluts and you

cody pevreall

An ekphrastic poem which responds to both the emotional and the literal shape of Gustav Klimt's famous painting

The Kiss

I’m sorry the wall we fell has left and now I think the air lights and I’m

Did you want to kiss me?

I was watching the way your hand a mark the sweat cools how cool how sweat lust

drug happy babywithyou

Tim Cooper

Space Whales I

Space Whales II

We drift Through this world, Like Whales floating Through oceans, Ebbing in endless expanse, Everlasting.

We move through life like, Wading through water, Stubbornly pushing on Against the to and fro Of the tide, Pressing ourselves Deep into the bed Of the Earth, Breathing in the sounds Of the sea, Reefs, woven into Our skin.

We could be one With the world, If only we wanted to Work together To build peace.

We drift Through this world, Like Whales floating Through space, Suspended in endless expanse, Ever-present.

We move through life blind To its beauty, Forgetting the miracle Of stardust That brought us to the Earth.

We cannot reach the stars, For we may have travelled so very far, But we have learned so little.

We could have been one With the world, If only we wanted to Work together, To build peace.

Andrew Butcher

The Dam The beavers couldn't find any wood. The logmen had taken away all the trees. This caused the beavers instinct for survival to change. so once night fell, the beavers sprung into action and raided the homes of the logmen. Anything that could be stuck together with mud they took, even the logmen themselves! It was a long night but by dawn the beavers were done! Satisfied with their job, made out of household goods and drowned logmen it was the perfect home to raise their young.

happy jon

VEX, The Ventnor Exchange Spoken Word Collective, meets fortnightly on Thursdays at 7:30-9:30pm starting on 4th September 2025.

Find us on Facebook and Instagram @vexspokenword or email us on vexspokenword@gmail.com

“theatre at its best” “rooted in truth, intensebut controlled”

Tim Cooper Presents

MAWGIAS Middle Aged White Guy In A Suit Friday 25th July, 20:45, The Bijou

£11.50 / £9.50 Culture Pass 2for1

GRAB YOUR TICKETS FOR OUR VEX MEMBERS’ SOLO SHOWS!