The Friday Poem
A poem every Friday
by Andrew Neilson — I dreamt the body was an instrument / and lay as such, beneath a great black lid. / As I waited, subdued in that antique air, / dust gathered on the inward machinery – / the wrest pins and hammers, the tension of strings
Jeremy Wikeley reviews bandit country by James Conor Patterson (Picador, 2022)
Mat Riches, Jane Routh and Alan Buckley choose favourite funny-serious poems by Matthew Sweeney, Michael McCarthy and Kathryn Maris
by Tim Goldstone — You see them from the village / only as tiny silhouetted off grid figures / high on the exposed ridge / bending straightening bending / all day long / patching holes / in crumbling dry stone walls, / hot coffee-splutters
British Cypriot poet and reviewer Maria Taylor tells us which books have been important to her in her life and in her poetry
Helena Nelson reviews The Arctic by Don Paterson (Faber, 2022)
Richie McCaffery reviews Mouth of Shadows by Tim Murphy (SurVision Books, 2022)
by Philip Hancock — Two lengths of inch and a half / by a quarter, stacked one on top of the other, / planed: no splinters, no need to tape or tie them. / In one hand seems the natural way / to carry them – no bother. // Impossible to say how they come
Natalie Shaw gives us a close reading of the poem 'Maybe; maybe not' by Denise Riley
Hilary Menos reviews The Red House by Sharon Black (Drunk Muse Press, 2022)
Bruno Cooke reviews Farewell Tour by Stefan Mohamed (Verve, 2022)
