One kid looking on in wonder
Matthew Stewart explores Ben Wilkinson’s poetic development and looks at his new collection, Same Difference (Seren, 2022)
Archive
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.
What the owl said to me
by Annie Fisher — I blink, therefore I am. / The moon and stars despise your crude chronology. / The skylark’s ecstasy is the sparrowhawk’s breakfast. // If you're scared of the dark, don't sleep in the forest.
A dark shape from the sun
Rob A. Mackenzie reviews Dead Souls by Sam Riviere (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2021)
Ups and Downs
In Conversation: Lorna Dowell talks about her first teachers at school, setting up Poetic Licence, and how creative expression is key to general well-being and mental health
Mosses and dunlins, lichens and curlew, light and water
Carl Tomlinson reviews what is near by Kay Syrad (Cinnamon, 2021)
About the Building
by Paul Stephenson — The entry says it’s homely in style, / double-fronted and two-storied / with gable dormer windows in the roof. / It refers to brick quoins and brick surrounds, / two large chimneys, one either side
The hail clanjamfrie’s singin
Regina Weinert writes in memory of William Bonar (1953-2021)
Photo by Kim Ayres
I could have been betterer. Et-fucking-cetera
Hilary Menos reviews Miracle Theatre’s Everyman, adapted by Carol Ann Duffy, at the Princess Pavillion, Falmouth
I’ll Know I’ve Made It When Going to a LongHorn Steakhouse on a Sunday Evening in the Dead of Winter Doesn’t Depress the Hell Out of Me
by Christine Naprava — There’s tremendous hurt / in knowing / that in this booth / I will never be complete.
Everything You Always Wanted To Know
by Mark Granier — At 15, I found Burt Reynolds in my mothers bed, / stowed under her pillow in a Cosmo centrefold. // Impossibly hairy, recumbent on a bearskin rug