The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

The Friday Poem

Welcome to The Friday Poem Archive. During 2021 – 2024 we published original poems, reviews of poetry collections & pamphlets, and features about poetry, here on this site. There are more than 700 posts for you to browse – this page displays a random selection, refresh the page for more, or you can use the Search function or do an Archive search, both top right, if you know what you’re looking for. Now The Friday Poem posts on Substack – come and take a look. You can subscribe, also top right, or via our Substack – if you do, you’ll get a post in your inbox on most Friday mornings ready for you to enjoy with your mid-morning beverage. Keep on poeting, poets!

Photograph showing various poetry book and pamphlet covers, all brightly coloured, or with interesting attractive designs.
Saint George and the Dragon, a painting by Paolo Uccello. . It shows a scene from the famous story of Saint George and the Dragon. On the right, George is spearing the beast, and on the left, the princess is using her belt as a leash to take the dragon up to the town. The eye in the storm gathering on the right of Saint George is lined up with his spear showing there has been divine intervention. The painting is commonly interpreted as an illustration of the legend of St. George as recounted in the Golden Legend. However, Stanford professor Emanuele Lugli has suggested an alternative reading: that the work functions as propaganda, encouraging Florentine elites to adopt agriculture. In medieval symbolism, the dragon was a symbol of pollution, and St. George's slaying of the creature can be seen as a metaphorical reclamation of the land, leading to a pure water source located in a cave.
Three large fishhooks dangling on what looks like hemp rope, a small green (jade?) fish swims between them.
A landscape photograph showing grass, a cloudy sky and a small crenelated building with a tower that looks like a lighthouse, but is presumably a camera obscura
Photo of Vanessa Lampert. She is wearing a blue jacket and smiling. She has shoulder length grey hair.
Black text on white reads: 'Dog-walking in a Cemetery by Helen Kay' with a large yellow Friday Poem blob over the bottom half a bit like a setting sun.
Escape
Naive painting of the backs of two people sitting on a wall, one has a red headscarf and orange skirt, one is dressed in black
Phantom Settlements
Hand drawn title 'GUB' in black on a cream background. A beastly mouth is surrounding the 'B'
The background is waves of pink and light blue. On top is a line drawing showing hands holding a heart shape with the word 'cursed' on it.
Black and white image showing what looks like abstracted, shrouded figures.