The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

The Friday Poem archive

Welcome to The Friday Poem Archive page. Poems, features and reviews will all end up here so that their gloriousness will remain readable to all those who seek poetic excellence. Use the buttons below to navigate between sections.

We have never seen worse

Feature: Emma Simon asks poets about good rejections, bad rejections, and rejections that leave you hanging on forever

Go long

Book Review: Hilary Menos reviews Notes on the Sonnets by Luke Kennard (Penned in the Margins, 2021)

A Harp So Strung with Rain

by Michael Grieve — our Friday Poem on 17/12/21

Two Poetries: Spender, Poetry and Ideology

Essay: Chris Edgoose considers Stephen Spender, revolutionary poetry and the need for trust between writers and readers of poetry

I was nothing but a heretic cormorant

Book Review: Rory Waterman reviews The European Eel by Steve Ely (Longbarrow Press, 2021)

I think you get it, John

by Jill Munro — our Friday Poem on 10/12/21

Beyond the Bubble

Feature: Matthew Stewart asks how poetry can reach out to a wider readership

Three pamphlets: Richie McCaffery, Phoebe Stuckes and Julia Bird

Book Review: Mat Riches reviews Coping Stones by Richie McCaffery, Emma Simon reviews The One Girl Gremlin by Phoebe Stuckes and Hilary Menos reviews Is, thinks Pearl by Julia Bird

Here is Bernie Saunders in Mittens

by Roy Marshall — our Friday Poem on 03/12/21

We need to pay attention to those who are calling it like they see it

In Conversation: The Friday Poem talks to James Conor Patterson

Like a bride with a posy of stout

Book Review: Steven Lovatt reviews Cheryl’s Destinies by Stephen Sexton (Penguin, 2021)

Pathé News Visits the Ace of Spades

by Matthew Paul — our Friday Poem on 26/11/21

Punk Poetry — bitten the dust or alive and well?

Feature: Hilary Menos looks back at the punk poets of the 1970s and 80s and asks where is the punk spirit today

The thing itself

Book Review: Charlotte Gann reviews When the Swimming Pool Fell in the Sea by Carole Coates (Shoestring Press, 2021)

What the Doorman Says

by Ben Wilkinson — our Friday Poem on 19/11/21

Lyric Essay / Autism / Nature / Around Me / The Lakes

Feature: Lyric Essay / Autism / Nature / Around Me / The Lakes — a lyric essay by Jane Burn

Traces

Book Review: Chris Edgoose reviews The Dereliction by Liz Berry and Tom Hicks (Hercules Editions, 2021)

Found by a man who was walking his dog

by Robert Etty — our Friday Poem on 12/11/21

Putting a Poetry Pamphlet Together

Feature: Roy Marshall on writing, editing and ordering your poems, choosing a title for your pamphlet, and finding the right place to send it

Her fear is a dress she can no longer fit into

Book Review: Bruno Cooke reviews C+nto: & Othered Poems by Joelle Taylor (Saqi Books, 2021)

Coda

by Rory Waterman — our Friday Poem on 05/11/21

We want everyone to feel they can come and join our poetry party!

In Conversation: Stuart Bartholomew talks to The Friday Poem

But what are these woods anyway?

Book Review: Fiona Moore reviews Thinking with Trees by Jason Allen-Paisant (Carcanet, 2021)

Frozen

by Jonathan Totman — our Friday Poem on 29/10/21

Compassion in strange places

Feature: Matthew Paul on the life and poetry of Patricia Beer

Distracted by eyelashes

Book Review: Steven Lovatt reviews Men Who Feed Pigeons by Selima Hill (Bloodaxe, 2021)

The Solvent Properties of Water

by Sarah Hymas — our Friday Poem on 22/10/21

Palimpsest

Feature: Chris Edgoose denounces 'palimpsest'

Essential poetry from Wayleave Press

Book Review: Richie McCaffery reviews two Wayleave pamphlets — Rib by Sharon Black and After by Jane Routh

Saturday Morning

by Martin Figura — our Friday Poem on 15/10/21

Sort of Irish and sort of famous

Feature: Rory Waterman reveals the story behind his poem 'Like Father'

Hearts pressed with aspic

Book Review: Emma Simon reviews Field Requiem by Sheri Benning (Carcanet, 2021)

Portrait of my mother as a hop-picker

by Liz Cashdan — our Friday Poem on 08/10/21

Castaway Companions

Castaway Companions: Anne-Marie Fyfe chooses three poems to take to a desert island

Slug snog

Book Review: Bruno Cooke reviews Slug by Hollie McNish

Reading Banville

by Tim Relf — our Friday Poem on 01/10/21

Out of the Blue

Feature: The Friday Poem talks to five previously unpublished poets who won the National Poetry Competition

The page my barrow and my charge the word

Book Review: Stephen Payne reviews The Resurrectionists by John Challis (Bloodaxe, 2021)

The Last Time

by Ann Gray — our Friday Poem on 24/09/21

Under the Influence: How I became a (woman) poet

Feature: Sarah Corbett traces the lineage of twentieth century women poets

Looking for the ones who will never be found

Book Review: Hilary Menos reviews Lyonesse by Penny Shuttle (Bloodaxe, 2021)

Down Time

by Chris Jones — our Friday Poem on 17/09/21

The Edwin Morgan Poetry Award 2020

Feature: Maggie Mackay looks at winning pamphlets in the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award 2020

My general approach is to question the norm

In Conversation: The Friday Poem talks to Les Robinson about finding new poets, writing blurbs, and going 'live' again

The February Museum: recent acquisitions

by Jane Routh — our Friday Poem on 10/09/21

Today I see eternity everywhere

Book Review: Clare Best reviews Time by Etel Adnan, translated from the French by Sarah Riggs (Nightboat Books, New York, 2019)

‘I did my one little verse and the place just went nuts’

Profile: Bruno Cooke profiles Kae Tempest

The Unicyclist of Benghazi

by Christopher James — our Friday Poem on 03/09/21

It’s written and can’t be amended, this book

Book Review: Charlotte Gann reviews The Long Habit of Living by M.R. Peacocke (HappenStance Press, 2021)

Poems for all!

Feature: Editors Andy Brodie and Hilary Menos on their journey to make The Friday Poem accessible to all

Guitar

by Tess Jolly — our Friday Poem on 27/08/21

Three pamphlets: S. D. Curtis, Sarah Hymas and Geraldine Clarkson

Book Review: Richie McCaffery reviews Diary of a Divorce by S. D. Curtis, Carla Scarano D'Antonio reviews the hispering by Sarah Hymas and Hilary Menos reviews Crucifox by Geraldine Clarkson

“I think she is beginning”

Feature: alice hiller on adolescence as self-reclamation beyond sexual abuse in childhood in four poems from bird of winter

Portrait of the Poet as an Artist

by Chris Edgoose — our Friday Poem on 20/08/21

Heft

Feature: Steven Lovatt denounces 'heft'

Body, you are beautiful, you are beautiful

Book Review: Mat Riches reviews When I Think of my Body as a Horse by Wendy Pratt (Smith|Doorstop, 2021)

On Poets and Prizes

Feature: Who gets what, and why? Juliana Spahr and Stephanie Young look at the poetry awards system in the USA

The End of the Pier Show

by Helen Ivory — our Friday Poem on 13/08/21

I don’t think Death has used a PlayStation before

Book Review: Bruno Cooke reviews Hit Points — an anthology of video game poetry, edited by Aaron Kent and Matthew Haigh (Broken Sleep Books, 2021)

How the flat with the red door swallowed me whole

Lyric Essay: Ways of Looking by Kim Moore

Leonard Cohen’s unknown teacher speaks from his strings

by Amlanjyoti Goswami — our Friday Poem on 06/08/21

In the end it was a matter of woodworm

Book Review: Steven Lovatt reviews Restorations by Ros Hudis (Seren, 2021)

Castaway Companions

Feature: Castaway poet Ben Wilkinson chooses three poems to accompany him to a desert island.

Our Children’s Childhoods

by Charlotte Gann — our Friday Poem on 30/07/21

Three pamphlets: Selima Hill, Natalie Shaw and Rachael Matthews

Book Review: Hilary Menos reviews three pamphlets: Fridge by Selima Hill, Oh Be Quiet by Natalie Shaw and do not be lulled by the dainty starlike blossom by Rachael Matthews

Do what you are going to do and I will tell about it

Feature: Katrina Naomi writes about finding permission to write, violence in poetry, and what makes a happy life

Lone Wolf

by Anthony Wilson — our Friday Poem on 23/07/21

Literature is larger than a single set of people or the taste of one editor

In Conversation: The Friday Poem talks to Amy Wack, Poetry Editor at Seren Books, about finding new poets, funding under austerity, and what it's like to be a poetry gatekeeper

Visions of Juana

Book Review: Mat Riches reviews Citadel by Martha Sprackland (Liverpool University Press, 2020)

Part of me can’t hear the moon calling anymore

by Emma Simon — our Friday Poem for 16/07/21

The outsider who writes from within

Essay: Matthew Stewart looks at the work of Michael Laskey

Then the great wheel began to turn

Book Review: Richie McCaffery reviews The Slowing Ride by Will Stone (Shearsman, 2020)

Flying the Lanner

by Tony Curtis — our Friday Poem on 09/07/21

By golly, I’ve got it

Feature: Bruno Cooke explores how the poetry of the 1918 Spanish flu compares with the poetry of the present Covid-19 pandemic

Halfway between stillness and flight

Book Review: Steven Lovatt reviews Still by Christopher Meredith (Seren, 2021)

The Baby in the Wardrobe

by Kathy Pimlott — our Friday Poem on 02/07/21

Do words help?

Feature: Consultant Clinical Psychologist and poet Khadija Rouf explores how poetry can be used to heal trauma

Surfers, swimmers and drowned sailors

Book Review: Hilary Menos reviews The Out-Islands by Martin Edwards (Smokestack Books, 2021)

Hotel Anonymous

by Mike Barlow — our Friday Poem on 25/06/21

Poetry editors have a love/hate relationship with poetry

In Conversation: The Friday Poem talks to Helena Nelson about the future of poetry publishing, the cult of personality and where to find good poetry today

A man was shot not far from where we live

Book Review: Emma Simon reviews Little Piece of Harm by Chris Jones (Longbarrow Press, 2020)

beyond the gate

by Clare Best — our Friday Poem on 18/06/21

Wild Hearted Woman

Feature: Helen Ivory writes on belonging, identity and finding a voice, and wonders whether hers has a Luton accent

An England both fertile and funereal

Book Review: Richie McCafferey reviews The Coming-Down Time by Robert Selby (Shoestring Press, 2020)

Las Cigüeñas

by Matthew Stewart — our Friday Poem on 11/06/21

You who found your dream but could not spell it

Profile: Bruno Cooke meets Spoken Word poet Joelle Taylor and discusses activism, education and the power of poetry

You can never know for certain whose head you’re in

Book Review: Mat Riches reviews RENDANG by Will Harris (Granta Books, 2020), winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2020

A literature that is not made of literature

Book Review: Hilary Menos reviews How To Wash A Heart by Bhanu Kapil (Liverpool University Press, 2020), winner of the TS Eliot Prize 2020

Book

by Meg Peacocke — our very first Friday poem ever on 04/06/21

Friday Poems in the Anglosphere

Feature: The Frip has a scout around for other Friday Poems, from Pan Macmillan and Seren in the UK to radio and print in Australia, New Zealand and the USA