Photo by bennoptic on Unsplash           Silence   A squirrel scampers the wall of the nature reserve In this idyll I’m not sure I fully deserve, […]

          The Form of an Armoured Car (Belfast, 1977)   A Saracen’s squat tonnage shudders through the lines of flat-faced houses. Its heartbeat pulses on their […]

Photo by Dagmara Dombrovska on Unsplash         Landskein   The hut tilted and in came the tide, gathering jars and books from my shelves – but it […]

‘The Nightmare’ by John Henry Fuseli, oil on canvas, 1781           Gothic   Where are you now? At the first flush of dawn everything pitched with […]

Fotheringhay © Kevin Gardner           Church Crawling for Kevin Gardner   Leighton Bromswold Yes, locked, of course. And once we find the key it’s comically huge, […]

Photo by Michael Mahood on Unsplash         From the Sea-window   The tide’s going out. The heron stalks the rock pools. A dunlin picks its way through […]

   Andrea Sonda on Unsplash           Window in the Rock   When you glimpse it you’re crammed into a floating bathtub with a teenage boy at the […]

Harry Grout on Unsplash           Zaban i urdu   Zaban i urdu, meaning language of the camp. In Urdu, here is idher or yahan. There is udher […]

Frans Ruiter on Unsplash           Brian Clough in the Rijksmuseum   I had four beautiful days in Amsterdam. The weather was gorgeous, the sights were just absolutely […]

© Hilary Davies           In the Mountains of the Monédières, by the Green Waters of the Vienne   In the mountains of the Monédières I sat by […]

    Photo by Anna Kukhareva on Unsplash              Cleaning the Big House   Norfolk, England, 2030   It was the English woman Veronica Berridge who let […]

Photo by Datingscout on Unsplash     Andrew McNeillie’s New and Collected poems, Striking a Match in a Storm, is published this week by Carcanet. There will be an online […]

Photo by S. Tsuchiya on Unsplash           Susumu   The sun beat down on Tokyo intensely: Forty-five in the shade. The matsu tree Stretched out across Susumu’s […]

Photo by Javier Balseiro on Unsplash           Caiaphas   I am content with what I have done in my time, and have little to alter. You fit […]

Photo by Simon Godfrey on Unsplash           Manor Farm, Gotherington   The walls stooped Under the weight of age. Windows frowned From gables Out towards Wicked, old, […]

The Dark Self 12, Susan Aldworth, 2017, monoprint, 56 x 76 cms. Image courtesy of the artist and Guy’s Hospital, London. susanaldworth.com           At the sleep disorders […]

Photo by Jinen Shah on Unsplash           Farm Work   Your first car catches heat like a tin roof, white clouds snag on the barbed wire of […]

    Photo by soumya parthasarathy on Unsplash            Saree   Mother gathers the folds of her old chiffon saree around her shoulders like a little girl playing […]