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‘Santa Maria del Popolo’ – a poem by Olivia Hodgson
Santa Maria del Popolo They are listening underfoot here, filigree-tongued and built with bones crowding from centuries of faltering tombs. Childhood compels me to lift the Latin hiding in marble-dry corners of the mouth. I drop a reluctant euro to hear the filament click, releasing a private light. Saint Peter, all…
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‘Patwá’ – a poem by Gary Jude
Patwá When I was a young boy, Sundays spoke a strange tongue: Jesus and his gang of bells, the cry of the rag’n bone man clip-clopping down our street, and sometimes I’d hear fascists, communists, feminists and anarchists at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park. But it was the Patwá my father…
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Two poems by Ruth Beddow
Arrival I. Julie shouts from her second-floor window I HAVE THE COUNCIL ON SPEED DIAL IF YOU CAUSE ANY TROUBLE and this plastic-clad pile becomes home. II. Julie’s German Shepherd howls as I unpack a five-tog duvet, free the dying wasp. Examine suspect stains on the curtain hem and run knuckles…
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After Catullus – three versions by Peter Jenkins
The bridge above the station – After Catullus 5 Hunger on their lips for living, for loving, they disregard the looks of strict old men and kiss again and again and again and then a kiss again, an entwined silhouette against the setting sun, hungry to kiss the light before the…
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Larkin Stateside: implicit dialogues between the poetries of Joshua Mehigan and Philip Larkin
Matthew Stewart From the perspective of English critics, poets and readers, it’s impossible to separate Philip Larkin’s qualities as a poet from his country of origin. He’s such a quintessentially English figure that any assessment or evaluation of his work inevitably gets weighed down by social and political baggage. Of course, foreigners come…
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‘Talking at Breakfast’ – a poem by William Wootten
The below poem is taken from William Wootten’s new pamphlet, Looking at the Horsemen, published by New Walk Editions on 4th May. On the same day, it will be launched online in a co-launch with Lisa Kelly. For more information and to register to attend, click here. Reading Walter de la Mare, William’s…
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‘Learning About Constellations’ – a poem by Saddiq Dzukogi
Poetry And, the much-loved public events series at King’s chaired by Professor of Poetry Ruth Padel, is teaming up with the Obsidian Foundation – a new foundation for Black poets – for a free online event on 13th May, presented by Obsidian’s founder Nick Makoha and featuring Ariana Benson, Zakia Carpenter-Hall, and Saddiq…
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Four Bal Maidens – a sequence by Morag Smith
– Bal Maiden I – Morning Rain ‘I ain’t complaining’ she hugs herself in the thin light before the sun is properly up A chilly wind wraps wet skirts round short legs pain in her flat chest She’s cold as the bucking iron she holds in small strong hands Staring…
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‘Swimming Lessons’ – a poem by Ariana Benson
Poetry And, the much-loved public events series at King’s chaired by Professor of Poetry Ruth Padel, is teaming up with the Obsidian Foundation – a new foundation for Black poets – for a free online event on 13th May, presented by Obsidian’s founder Nick Makoha and featuring Ariana Benson, Zakia Carpenter-Hall, and Saddiq Dzukogi.…
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Two poems by Ion Corcos
A Magpie on a Downpipe I sweep white blossoms from the path, hard bristles unbending on each stroke; it is not till months later, when the owner of the house returns, that I learn the tree overhanging the fence is an apple tree. We sit outside in the sun, get to…
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‘In Concert’ – a poem by Tamar Yoseloff
Picture credit: Stephen Wells In Concert We were sitting in a crowded hall, waiting for the lights to dim – before the halls were emptied – strangers sharing breath, breathing as one when the music began. How strange to be silent together, listening as sound filled the air; shallow breathing of…
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‘Chocolate Factory’ – a poem by Peter Robinson
Chocolate Factory for Andrew McDonald Like a natural outsider over listed cobblestones to this once mews-like stable block, then chocolate factory, hence its name, on a visit to your studio, I’m late – caught in the rain. It’s accessed by some iron steps and walkways to the farther end, narrow,…
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New Foundation & Poetry Retreat Launched for Black Poets
Poetry And, the much-loved public events series at King’s chaired by Professor of Poetry Ruth Padel, is teaming up with the Obsidian Foundation – a new foundation for Black poets – for a free online event on 13th May, presented by Obsidian’s founder Nick Makoha and featuring Ariana Benson, Zakia Carpenter-Hall, and Saddiq…
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The Poem Not Taken: Robert Frost and the inaugural tradition that isn’t
Rick de Villiers The sun shines on nothing new, saith the Preacher (and Samuel Beckett after him). But what if, on 21 January 1961, it hadn’t? What if neither snowy glare nor a whipping “Nor’easter” prevented Robert Frost from reading ‘Dedication’, the poem he’d written specially for the inauguration of John F.…
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Two poems by Ross Wilson
Vital Organs ICU, Easter, 2020 An outsider looking in might imagine they were seeing the interior of a space ship; ventilators, dialysis machines, monitors surrounded a station full of computers and strange-looking creatures, indistinguishable from one another. In gowns, masks, goggles and gloves with only a scribble like a tattoo…
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Poems from ‘The Conversation’ by Jo Burns and Emily Cooper
Emily and Jo write: “What follows is a six-poem sequence taken from the manuscript of a collaborative poetry collection, The Conversation. This collection follows a conversation held between three muses/lovers of Picasso: Marie-Thérèse Walter, Dora Maar and Françoise Gilot, as well as between ourselves: Emily Cooper and Jo Burns. The themes discussed are fidelity,…
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‘Dates with the Fates’ – a short sequence by Andew Neilson
Dates with the Fates i) Clotho Her last date? Some chump called Pelops. She gave him the cold shoulder. With her men, she likes them older and she dines on them like scallops. You can see why I’d be nervous. I asked to try the Sauvignon while she…
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Cosmo Davenport-Hines Poetry Prize: 2020 winners
Alice Oldacre On Being Here When you Ought to be There When bent under absent weight you tend to wander, walking on the telephone, wise balancing act, mind on a window glossed fog, with bulbous groaning ache for an owed not owned place, sore throat in the morning, boredom, the…
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‘Cakes by Carol’ – a poem by Naima Rashid
Cakes by Carol It brought a strange comfort; somewhere in the folds of fondant she felt she had stowed away dreams she had held on to for too long, dreams she was too tired to carry any further. She was happiest when the show was on, in worlds lit up briefly…
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Fifty Forty: on the incomplete histories of Carcanet and the LRB
Kevin Gardner One of the most pleasurable of readerly experiences is the subversive frisson of snooping into the conversational intimacy of an author’s letters. When the initial titillation of prying fades, however, we are left craving an indulgence. If only this invasion of privacy were permitted, encouraged even, by the letter writer.…