Whale-boned Corset and Other Relics How I loved the net flaring around my thighs, blue smocking smoky organza into fingertip deep slots of mussel black nibbling my chest. The power of an unscrutinised body. I was the dress. And so, the loch biting my arms as I exalt its sting of marbled August, cutting my … Continue reading Two poems by Sarah Hymas
Category: Poetry
Two poems by Hannah Linden
The Cottage in the Wood Be careful of the stories you keep, my mother said. Peel back their metaphors and check under their skins before you put them into your basket. Mother forgets, sometimes, the basket, the tightness of its weave, how big its handle. Life was simpler under lamp-posts. It's hard to remember when … Continue reading Two poems by Hannah Linden
Two poems by Humphrey Astley
Movement My grandmother standing on a West Ireland pier trying not wanting to take it all in the Atlantic both the linctus and the tall dark man pushing it to her My grandmother feeling as young as she is with the odour of rope and the spit of birds ripe to distil in the pits … Continue reading Two poems by Humphrey Astley
Three poems by Sarah Crewe
25B the bear’s leg scorched a bronze bolt on black fur too close yr grandaughter’s heart reduced to menthol cinders scented jumpers chanel factoids &breathe standing in the shadow of a yellow fiesta for anti-climb read anti cry read … Continue reading Three poems by Sarah Crewe
Two poems by Leah Umansky
A Real Poem – 1. In love, there are times where unprecedented things happen. I’ll just say it here: I have never been to battle, but I battle every day. We speak a part. Studies show this. We speak a part, as we are made of parts. We are partly made of mothers. 2. There’s … Continue reading Two poems by Leah Umansky
Extract from a sequence by Greg Gilbert
Perfection B.C. (Before Cancer): SATURDAY, 1ST AUGUST Graceful necks of wilting gold, Dry grass sleeps upon the breeze; My daughters fine white hair, Like cotton thread, lifts, A cube of hissing morning Bleeding through us. In this field I invented summer When I was cotton like her, And from here all ensuing summers broke, Perfected … Continue reading Extract from a sequence by Greg Gilbert
Two poems by Richard Skinner
The Cloud of Unknowing There, it is done. We have built squarely in the dross of the land a place of worship for our Lord. It took years to sand the stone, make flush the lines. But, really, we were shaping our own misshapen lives. Scrape mud before you enter, be clean. Embolden yourself—look up, … Continue reading Two poems by Richard Skinner
Two poems by Tristram Fane Saunders
Poem in which there are hooves Greg, gently mashing the keys of a Steinway. Or Greg, brow furrowed, struggling to grasp a toothbrush, album, cup. Now Greg in bed: listen for the unconsolable clop that comes each night before his prayers. Unhappy Greg, remembering the touch of things, people. His mother's face. Has he not … Continue reading Two poems by Tristram Fane Saunders
Three poems by Jean Atkin
Not there, nearly This cream blackthorn warm of morning is the hour to be patching the cattle trailer with squint squares of corrugated tin and new rivets. The air is lamb-bleat soft. Away up the lane go steady hoofbeats, clip of iron to stone, the horse-pace laid in layers over the land. A tawny owl … Continue reading Three poems by Jean Atkin
‘Sand’ by Jane Commane
It began when you opened your desk and found everything gone, replaced with sand. You opened the wooden pencil case your brother had made and it contained nothing but sand. Next, your books filled with sand and the words began to wear away. Your homework was late because sand ate the sums and solutions. Study … Continue reading ‘Sand’ by Jane Commane
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