Luve’s arcane delirium
Richie McCaffery reviews The Mouth of Eulalie by Annie Brechin (Blue Diode, 2022)
Archive
Glass through heat
Jane Routh reviews Panic Response by John McCullough (Penned in the Margins, 2022)
Castaway Companions
Castaway poet Anne Rouse chooses poems by H.D. and Yeats, and Helen Waddell's translation of 'Die Christi Veritas', to take to a desert island
Eventually
by Michael Laskey — yes, she gave up conversation. / She’d lift her chin and finger / her neck, feeling for the stoma — / her trial and almost always error — / to seal it tightly enough to speak // intelligibly in that growling / voice which sounded like
A flower blossoming out of the hole in my face
Khadija Rouf reviews Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire (Chatto & Windus with Flipped Eye, 2022)
A gorgeous fluorescent yes
Hilary Menos reviews Ephemeron by Fiona Benson (Cape, 2022)
Folio
by Sharon Black — Hard to tell if these are my words / on wood pulp pressed to paper / or the tree’s own testimony. // Take this fallen leaf. Our veins are / indistinguishable. They snake and crisscross / under
Three pamphlets: Erica Gillingham, Stephen Payne and Khadija Rouf
Rachael Matthews reviews The Human Body is a Hive by Erica Gillingham, Richie McCaffery reviews The Wax Argument by Steven Payne, and Bruno Cooke reviews House Work by Khadija Rouf
One kid looking on in wonder
Matthew Stewart explores Ben Wilkinson’s poetic development and looks at his new collection, Same Difference (Seren, 2022)
Studley Royal Water Gardens Temple of Fame
by Sue Burge — When they peeled the dome / from the damaged temple // it was full of honey, oozing / down the columns like sweet candlewax //
the workmen’s hands slathered / as if they were desperate bears
Protection
by Helena Nelson — You need to understand the context. / There’s an English verb: ‘to be in mourning’ / and it applies to me and I am in it. / I’m in mourning for my sister who has died / so when they talk about 'women in mourning' / I relate to that.