The Fox Fairy Appearances are deceiving. How do you know I’m not one of those women, with secrets. You know the kind – ones who take husbands – then slip out at night to run in the fields; dew wet and odorous after the passion, to hunt for mice. How do you know I … Continue reading Two poems by Pey Oh
Category: Poetry
‘The lucky little girls’ by Claire Askew
The valley was filled with things that should have frightened us: leeches in the Bowmont, ticks clinging in the grass. Combines dipping like warships through the ripe wheat, green clouds over Kelsocleuch, their guyropes of lightning. Nothing was forbidden but the ruined shepherd’s cottage on the Law, the gubbed skull of its walls like a … Continue reading ‘The lucky little girls’ by Claire Askew
Two poems by Sally Douglas
The Night I See Myself The car is a parcel of breath; the road unrolling like a bolt of black crêpe. I drive like I’m in green-screen and nothing outside is real: all I can see is a false moon crowing at my shoulder, and a curd of light behind the hills where the town … Continue reading Two poems by Sally Douglas
Two poems by Clarissa Aykroyd
Holmes in Florence ‘…a week later I found myself in Florence, with the certainty that no one in the world knew what had become of me.’ (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Empty House) When I came to Florence it was morning. I stumbled through the hills and lay down on the hard … Continue reading Two poems by Clarissa Aykroyd
Three poems by Matthew Stewart
Home comforts Until you’ve lived in a country full of kitchens full of saucepans that slowly creak to the boil, a kettle won’t seem to whistle like the owner of a loose dog calling it back, calling it home. Twenty years apart With a synchronised swivelling of necks and a coughed silence, … Continue reading Three poems by Matthew Stewart
Two poems by Kate Noakes
Salomé in the mirror I find myself calling for your head on a brass platter from Bernese the kind I can make into a table I smile I smile manic delighted There will be no church or mosaic shrine on the spot where this happens I smile I smile manic … Continue reading Two poems by Kate Noakes
‘Keep Digging’ by David Atkinson
We Irish have a reputation for being handy with a spade, digging potatoes and turf; and when the potatoes stopped growing, no matter how much we dug, we planted our children in the ground. When we grew tired of planting our children we left for England, and when we arrived they gave us a spade … Continue reading ‘Keep Digging’ by David Atkinson
‘Beyond the Pale’ by Ann Leahy
Beyond the Pale (in West Cork) I commit a minor act of appropriation - pick plants whose names I don’t know from the ditches to try and make my own of the unfamiliar: the rise ahead in the road the peak of Miskish behind me the arthritic finger of Coulagh bay before me. In my … Continue reading ‘Beyond the Pale’ by Ann Leahy
‘Songs of the the Sea’ by Eleanor Hooker
Songs of the Sea At Kilmore town ancient carols are sung, legend says the sea will drown their town. Casting stones into the sea is wrong, storm-crested waves drag silent sail down. Legend says the sea will drown their town, a silver coin beneath the mast brings luck. Storm crested waves drag silent sail down, … Continue reading ‘Songs of the the Sea’ by Eleanor Hooker
‘Dair Ghaelach (Irish Oak)’ by Carol Caffrey
The heft and reach of him through mountain bog and field earthed bark to leaf-lit canopy true north. (i.m. Seamus Heaney.) (previously published in Shrewsbury Stanza's Anthology 2015) Carol Caffrey is an Irish writer and actor who lives in Shropshire with her husband and two grown-up children. A former teacher and full-time mother, her work … Continue reading ‘Dair Ghaelach (Irish Oak)’ by Carol Caffrey
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