‘I spent my life kissing strangers on New Year’s Eve.’
New poetry by Damian Balassone.
Poetry | Of the Death of Brutus by Graham Allison
‘No sudden catastrophe; witness / years of crumbling stone, / rotting libraries, addled brains.’
New poetry by Graham Allison.
Poetry | Tyrant by Meredith MacLeod Davidson
‘Did you know the T-Rex / was quite likely an excellent swimmer? / Its skeletal frame light enough to float.’
New poetry by Meredith MacLeod Davidson.
Poetry | Needle by Michael Martin
‘I’m the way she likes anyone left behind — / undeserving, falling.’
New poetry by Michael Martin.
Poetry | Medieval Mystic Margery Kempe in Tesco by Laura Varnam
‘She’s losing tins of custard powder & / baby formula and she’s crushing the body / & blood of Christ under her arm while / John Junior tucks into a doughnut.’
New poetry by Laura Varnam.
Poetry | Vanishing Points by Christopher M James
‘The train driver’s one straight line, as / he calls to mind his schoolboy love / or stillborn child whose name haunts / like an abandoned station.’
New poetry by Christopher M James.
Poetry | Self Portrait as an Unreliable Narrator by Damen O’Brien
‘But if she was brown-eyed or blue-eyed, / they will not recall, only that her eyes / asked a question that no one could answer.’
New poetry by Damen O’Brien.
Poetry | Punctum by Lisa Kelly
‘If all the protesters were smiling serenely, / would a scowling woman become / the punctum? Or is a scowling woman / too much of a cliché to be a punctum?’
New poetry by Lisa Kelly.
Poetry | Glitch by Nicholas Hogg
‘What figure / is the chance that a poet can appear / on praise.’
New poetry from Nicholas Hogg.
Poetry | Temporary Shores by Holly Pollard
‘And again – I arrive to set out my fears, / to still rot in watery luck.’
New poetry by Holly Pollard.
Poetry | Karma by Jane Zwart
‘Of justices, karma is the most poetic— / a magistrate who makes us wear / our wrongs: albatrosses, ugly charms.’
New poetry by Jane Zwart.
Poetry | Motif by Luciana Francis
‘I feed the birds / before I feed myself.’
New poetry by Luciana Francis.
Poetry | Hit me with your rhythm stick by Rachel Burns
‘Dad drinks a pint of Newcastle Brown
feet sticking to the floor,
the room thick with fag smoke.
Dad 70’s cool, beard & sideburns & swagger.’
New poetry by Rachel Burns.
Poetry | If you look closely by Tim Relf
‘everything is muddled, everything is metaphor.’
New poetry by Tim Relf.
Poetry | Dansette by Nicky Kippax
. Nicky Kippax Dansette . Grandad’s pride and joy, black kit set square in a red box – glossy handle…
Poetry | Message by Imogen Wade
Imogen Wade Message . . Sometimes we are insects, communicating with each other from opposite ends of a vast yellow…
Poetry | French Lessons by Jessa Brown
Jessa Brown French Lessons . . some of our best talks were in French, imperfect [,] tense, and almost crying…
Poetry | The Divine Comedy as Jazz Piece by Matthew Johnson
Matthew Johnson The Divine Comedy as Jazz Piece Love which quickly takes a gentle heart, took him for my fair…
Poetry | Madroño by Joana Urtasun
Joana Urtasun Madroño . . Now that I’m in Madrid I can think and the city hiccups under my feet…
Poetry | Mortgage by Rachel Coventry
Rachel Coventry Mortgage . .I worked three days in the local shop to make the criteria for a mortgage. Sometimes,…
Poetry | Woman at a Window by Michael Naghten Shanks
Michael Naghten Shanks Woman at a Window …………after Caspar David Friedrich . . She is composed . as he composes…
Poetry | Blessing by Clare Martin
Clare Martin Blessing . . …has nested in you. Hatched, the chick levers out every unborn egg you’d been tending…
Poetry | Two Poems by Vasiliki Albedo
Vasiliki Albedo Two Poems . . Bitter . My mother and I sit at a hotel café. Neither of us…
Poetry | Birds Are the Things With Feathers by Colin Bramwell
Colin Bramwell BIRDS ARE THE THINGS WITH FEATHERS .I’ve always loved an orthodoxy, but the older I got the more…