New work
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Two poems by Bernard Pearson
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, Cleeve hill. At the front, a cote, Devoid of dove and egg, Stood sentry and I, a child Inside its bell, Hushed by such anatomy,…
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Three poems by Rebecca Farmer
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 clinic, Guy’s Hospital after The Dark Self 12 … then a girl with flaxen braids appears in the corridor to record my height…
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Three poems by William Thompson
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 vapour trails against a background of powder blue. A forklift lurches past. The pig-shed stench is thick with gold under ash canopies and powerlines. ‘Why…
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‘Saree’: a poem by Sambhu R.
Photo by soumya parthasarathy on Unsplash Saree Mother gathers the folds of her old chiffon saree around her shoulders like a little girl playing dress-up. Confided to the short-term memory of the wardrobe with the rust-sprinkled knob, the saree pops out at intervals like a deeply embarrassing slip of…
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‘Lest We Forget’: a poem by John Seymour
Photo by Metin Ozer on Unsplash The below poem won first prize in the SSA (Soldiers’ Arts Academy) International Poetry Competition 2021. Lest We Forget Who now will speak for those lost souls whose ashen faces stare, What breath is heard upon their fate as stirs the saddened air, What news of Daniels, Dorey, Foot,…
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‘Bitter Hops’: a poem by Lucy Holme
Oasthouse cowls, Sissinghurst, Kent Bitter Hops I am the end of a Kent summer, the careful cutting of the bine. I return to pluck a bushel of woody twine from the neon green hop burr. I crush pellets in palms to molten spice, warm the oil between my hands, and…
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‘Flat’: a poem by Tim Relf
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash Flat The new floors, kitchen and bathroom, I can just about cope with. I’m fine with the built-in bookshelves and landscaped patio garden; ditto the high ceilings and period features this Victorian conversion apparently boasts; but why is there a cot in my room? A…
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Two poems by D. R. James
Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash Rec Rugby, 195 Years Later* — for Maggie Current version of the original — (plump ovoid freshly plucked from perfectly uneven mud and barely tucked under an arm bruised and translucent, impatience betraying a stone-cold determination amidst the Saturday spectacle of leashed dogs,…
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Two poems by Stewart Sanderson
Photo by David Brooks on Unsplash Peniel Heugh Hounded from the burghs at killing time the Covenanters hid their faith up here, where nobody but God could see it. Forsaking mercat cross and kirk a masked man cried on the assembled people – a black ripple spilling out over the…
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‘Aubade’: a poem by Rituparna Sahoo
Photo by Cecile Hournau on Unsplash Aubade Waking at five, I stare at the shimmering diaphanous curtains as the window square lightens from black to white and the sun upstages the dull stars. A new morning beckons from behind the ivory satins to be unwrapped like a present. But I feel…
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Two poems by Richie McCaffery
Photo by Shapelined on Unsplash Games Each week it was the same – the PE teacher would pick his captains for the football game and each week they were the same. It always struck me as odd, how the subject was called ‘Games’ when there was no fun in…
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Two poems by Caroline Banerjee
Photo by Matt Brown on Unsplash Orpheus’s Awakening That moment Orpheus looked back, He knew what he had lost: Lemon light drifting Through French blinds, Heat rising in an October cool, The feeling of knowing you are exactly Where you are meant to be. Stumbling, stuttering, Eurydice is before…
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‘Window Seat of a Train in the Past’: a poem by Debasis Tripathy
Photo by Parichay Sen on Unsplash Window Seat of a Train in the Past We travel on the train now. I have grabbed the window seat seeing many kinds of my country & characters. My father wants us to note down the names of the stations we cross. Platforms…
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Two poems by Oliver Comins
Photo by Alessandro Bogliari on Unsplash Another XI A cricket tea on a boundary edge in old heat. Trains and cars passed, skirting the park’s rim where sunlight was streaming through poplars. On the surface, at least, we weren’t normal sporting types – sweaty and earnest or urgent. A…
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‘The Penlee Lifeboat Disaster’: a poem by Jennifer Edgecombe
The below poem is taken from Jennifer Edgecombe’s debut pamphlet The Grief of the Sea, published by Broken Sleep Books in June 2020. It also appears in Carcanet’s New Poetries VIII. The poem originally appeared on Wild Court in February 2020 and is republished here to mark the 40th anniversary of the Penlee…
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Two poems by Stephanie Powell
Photo by Anton Murygin on Unsplash Foxes In the backstreets the foxes are synchronised swimmers- unaware they are in the same pool, unaware they are doing the same thing. Crossing pot-holed Grasmere Avenue, Poplar Place, Glastonbury Road. Light muzzled, shagged amber fur- thief-footing the pavement. On bin night they…
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Two poems by Mat Riches
Photo by Tim Foster on Unsplash Captain’s Pond I didn’t expect to find myself beside you, swatting flies and leaves to watch fishermen watching you like I watched Dad that summer, his float piercing the fly-busy surface until a tench rose to the bait and yanked his rod clear from…
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Two poems by Tuesday Shannon
Photo by Khara Woods on Unsplash Catechism In the vestibule, Mum dips her hand in holy water, blesses each of her wayward flock with the sign of the cross. We are well-practiced in this deception: know when to kneel, stand, and pray, say ‘amen’ in the right places and,…
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‘Ancestors’ – a poem by Alan Buckley
Photo by Eva Wilcock on Unsplash Ancestors Their voices – those we barely remember, those we never knew – urge us to bear witness. A corpse on barbed wire. Nights filled with flames. One hand slipping from another’s grasp. They’ve suffered beyond our knowing. But then they ask us…
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‘Lapis lazuli’ – a poem by Alexandra Fössinger
Photo by Shifaaz Shamoon on Unsplash Lapis lazuli On a Sardinian beach, the ambulant vendor shifts through white vesicles from lapis lazuli waves straight into my eyes, then stops at the border of my towel, bare feet boiling in sand. A silvery man. The woman-snake on my left hisses…