Animal Guess Who It makes the car journey shorter. My daughter picks, I ask the questions and she fills in the gaps. I discover they run fast, have soft fur, they look friendly, they don't bite. I guess, her strawberry curls tumble over her smile as she nods. My turn. I think of parrots … Continue reading Two poems by Claire Walker
Author: And Other Poems
Two poems by Stav Poleg
Birth Again I was dreaming, but it wasn’t just me. There were all the creatures, incognito, the sky and sea unseparated, and the skilfully miscast protagonists, running towards or away from each other. You ask who I was? I wasn’t him, or her, or the one who tricked her into it, using consonants and vowels. … Continue reading Two poems by Stav Poleg
Three poems by Gregory Leadbetter
Masts The air is not itself today: it can no longer rest. The last free molecule has just been put to use. Our alpha-waves are butterfly-brained. Sleep, in any normal sense, has not been possible here for months. I carry an egg for safety now. I came too close the other day: it cooked … Continue reading Three poems by Gregory Leadbetter
Three poems by Alasdair Paterson
Age of gold Burnish the armour. Drench the altar. Flourish the treasure. Or walk out into a flare of sunlight that's all that matters here, this moment. Those gods you named and brought to life seem to like you. Days like this, you might expect to hear from one. Pellucid, bright as a rock-pool … Continue reading Three poems by Alasdair Paterson
Two poems by David Cooke
Faro We’re two hours’ flight from a northern spring; the impassive sky we’ve left behind us a canvas primed but still awaiting some splash of inspiration; the grey pavements underscoring routines we cling to; but here our touchdown lights a spark in a town whose name suggests a beacon and where all winter, unknown … Continue reading Two poems by David Cooke
A poem by Michael Bartholomew-Biggs
Bredon Hill We're out to let me wander in the past. I came here camping as a child, believing it adventurous to try my luck at roughing it. On cold uncomfy nights I shivered as I thought I caught the chill of ragged ghosts who'd trudged this way to fight at Tewkesbury and … Continue reading A poem by Michael Bartholomew-Biggs
A poem by Gill McEvoy
Kingfisher, Bachelors Bridge, Caldy Valley, Chester Perfect, this bridge, for leaning on the dipped curves in its steel patterned with dragonfly and frog. Perfect for watching the reflection of three willow trees: ridged bark pleats green water. Perfect for the bed of yellow flags in the mud-marsh at its edge, for a Labrador … Continue reading A poem by Gill McEvoy
‘The butcher’s daughter’ by Petra Kamula
The butcher’s daughter I wake early, begin before the sun tips itself red onto my hands. Hush, I’ve learnt the songs I must sing to you heifers and your calves. I’m already well acquainted with blood. Clots and stains as thick as tongues. It’s a language the boys in the yards have yet to … Continue reading ‘The butcher’s daughter’ by Petra Kamula
Two poems by Eileen Sheehan
My Father, Long Dead My father, long dead, has become air Become scent of pipe smoke, of turf smoke, of resin Become light and shade on the river Become foxglove, buttercup, tree bark Become corncrake lost from the meadow Become silence, places of calm Become badger at dusk, deer in the thicket Become … Continue reading Two poems by Eileen Sheehan
Three poems by Linda Black
Dancing Can be done at any time, mathematically speaking. A child in the front row, she sees the Prince’s laddered tights. This opens up and widens her. In her grandparent’s house, at the end of a terrace, up a hill you get to through Gledhow Valley Woods, next to a parade where the green-grocer … Continue reading Three poems by Linda Black
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