There is something of rain to you I could say to my brother if anger was bite size and not a baton to be wielded to a plum. I want you to want an available peace, an acquittal of ire, a way out of fiery words, a little less of seizure with tongue, the way … Continue reading ‘Baton’ by Andrea Holland
Tag: Smith/Doorstop
Four poems by David Tait
Talisman I don’t need an amulet around my neck, don’t need a jade bracelet upon my wrist, a twist of string, blessed around my shin. I don’t need onions or jasmine above my door, don’t need to live on the eighth floor of this apartment complex, could take the fourth bed on any … Continue reading Four poems by David Tait
Two poems by Pam Thompson
Her Grown-Up Dress When she came at last to that row of shops on the long road, having left behind the dirt track, railway-line, the sluggish brook and had fastened round gold slides in her mud brown hair, pulled plimsolls on her feet so the backs weren’t squashed she found the shops were boarded up, … Continue reading Two poems by Pam Thompson
‘February’ by Tim Dooley
We walked back and forth from the library, preparing for some high leap: sunlight catching the tallest spume of the shopping centre fountain. Something we owe to the past made our elders stand, kneel and then sit in buildings warmed by a hope for something better. That monogrammed leather trunk we use to … Continue reading ‘February’ by Tim Dooley
Deathflake by Paul Stephenson
(Deathflake was previously published in Under the Radar magazine). Paul Stephenson was one of the winners of the 2014/15 Poetry Business Book and Pamphlet competition. His first pamphlet will be published by Smith Doorstop in May. He was previously a Jerwood/Arvon mentee in 2013/14, and in 2012 won second prize in the Troubadour International poetry … Continue reading Deathflake by Paul Stephenson
Three poems by Carole Bromley
Whistling on the in breath Your forte. Carols, music hall tunes, even the odd aria. A choir of children dressed in red with white ruffs sings in Latin this morning till the stained glass shivers but it's your whistling I hear, sound track of my childhood. We brought you with us once, you fiddled … Continue reading Three poems by Carole Bromley
Three poems by Yvonne Green
Jews (I.M. of Czesław Miłosz) We’re neither poems for you to fetishise Nor emblems of the murdered of the twentieth century, We don't hold all possibilities in our Talmudic minds Live burdened with the grief you want us to. We're not the monsters of the Middle East, The devils of the diaspora, nor do we … Continue reading Three poems by Yvonne Green
‘Rendezvous’ by Carole Bromley
Rendezvous after Dennis O’Driscoll I am in Stonegate expecting to meet you at 4 You are in The Shambles expecting to meet me at 4 I have shopping bags that lengthen my arms you have Jonathan on your shoulders It’s Christmas and I’m Dreaming blasts out from Ye Olde Starre Inn In Giovanni’s doorway … Continue reading ‘Rendezvous’ by Carole Bromley
‘A Lady Cyclist Learns to Cycle (England, 1917)’ by Jonathan Davidson
They led it round the garden and yard on a long rein. They fed it oil. It was black as my jet black boots, heavy as a gate. It ticked, shone. Climbing on it, I felt it shy, lunge beneath me, clatter to earth. They held me up, the men, laughing, shouldered me … Continue reading ‘A Lady Cyclist Learns to Cycle (England, 1917)’ by Jonathan Davidson
‘The Oldest Paperboy in the World and Me’ by Ian McMillan
The Oldest Paperboy in the World and Me Our paths cross in the tight dark And his sack reflects the streetlight And he nods and I nod And his sack is emptier than the past And his sack is emptier than the future And his sack is all there is. Our paths diverge in the … Continue reading ‘The Oldest Paperboy in the World and Me’ by Ian McMillan
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