By golly, I’ve got it
Bruno Cooke explores how the poetry of the 1918 Spanish flu compares with the poetry of the present Covid-19 pandemic
Archive
Halfway between stillness and flight
Steven Lovatt reviews Still by Christopher Meredith (Seren, 2021)
The Baby in the Wardrobe
by Kathy Pimlott — Do you remember the story of the baby in the wardrobe, / its desiccated body wrapped in newspaper? How the baby / was decades old but the newspaper was last week’s edition?
Do words help?
Consultant Clinical Psychologist and poet Khadija Rouf explores how poetry can be used to heal trauma
Surfers, swimmers and drowned sailors
Hilary Menos reviews The Out-Islands by Martin Edwards (Smokestack, 2021)
Hotel Anonymous
by Mike Barlow — Someone in the room next door / is practising the oboe, those clear / woody notes going over and over / the same bars, never finding perfection, / never satisfied but reminding me / of one particular
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
Emma Simon reviews Little Piece of Harm by Chris Jones (Longbarrow, 2020)
beyond the gate
by Clare Best — scots pine and resin-scented air / out here / giant oak left of the path / we are walking // sycamore in sun in shade / holly crowding ragged elder // sweet chestnut spruce fir douglas fir
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
Richie McCafferey reviews The Coming-Down Time by Robert Selby (Shoestring, 2020)
Las Cigüeñas
by Matthew Stewart — The storks’ nest teeters on floodlight pylons, / bushy hair over thirty-two white eyes / that shine against the darkening skyline. // Just seconds left, the home team's pressing hard / for a winner