Sean Lìonadh is a poet, writer and filmmaker from Glasgow, known for his visual poem Time for Love which reached millions of people online, won a 2019 Royal Television Society award and was translated into five languages. It also inspired a Ted talk and a movement called the Time for Love Project.
Sean’s poems are studied as part of the English curriculum in International schools. Sean is developing his first feature film, Nostophobia, a horror relationship drama exploring the terror of adolescent intimacy and trauma through a gay relationship.
He is also publishing his first poetry collection in 2019 with Speculative Books. Aside from making, Sean runs poetry workshops with young people, and is keen to work closely with the LGBTQ+ community within schools, community groups and institutions.
The Safe Middle Class
Before the marriage fell apart
Dad married his way into
The Safe Middle Class
Where there was only ever one heated discussion
(over who got to keep the Stilton)
And I learned what a flannel was
And at the dinner table between mouthfuls
the adults would do a kind of
Strictly Come Smile to pass the silence
And ha’pennies were kept
in a small brown chest
to bet away the Scabby Queen
And one night alone on the front room settee
Remembering my pub steps waiting game
As a child with a bag of crisps and a can
And all the dialling 999 to counter
The threats of broken arms
I begin to understand why
The Safe Middle Class closes its curtains
Clinging onto its cheese with
Claws as sharp as a stray cat’s
One street corner away from the dark.
Tiny Sounds
I started to make tiny sounds
That leaked out of my mouth
Even when there were others around
Someone mentions it once in the car
But then they just accept
I make tiny sounds
In a language they do not speak
Cracking beauty
Or agony breaking
At the surface
A language they do not speak
Maybe the tiny sounds will pass in a few weeks
(I still make tiny sounds in 2019.)