Paul Stephenson
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‘Not before time’: a poem by Paul Stephenson
Not before time will I climb the hillup to the Acropolis then climb down again to sit about at a bar in Psyrilistening to jazz and sipping prosecco not before time. I’ll ask for crisps not before timeand when the bowl is empty, more crisps not…
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Two poems by Paul Stephenson
Photo of Tbilisi by Eugene Chystiakov on Unsplash Climbing Tbilisi Above the brick-domed baths of Abanotubani, rare trees ache with invasion and enemy grab. City spreads, leavened and rising like khachapuri, its rooftops woven, a red and brown kilim. In the butterflied grasses, local teens lay about making out in telescopic…
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‘The Poet As Witness’: CD Wright & The Art of Curating the Past
Paul Stephenson How do we look at a difficult past? Carolyn Forché has put forward the notion of ‘poetry of witness’ for a category of poems that ‘bear the race of extremity’ and end up as ‘evidence of what occurred’ (Forché 1993). In the space between citizen and state, she advocates that we…