The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

Bruno Cooke

a black handprint on a white background with a yellow stripe down the left hand side

Prizes prised from the perished

Bruno Cooke reviews Please Do Not Touch by Casey Bailey (Burning Eye, 2021)
Bad Betties written in black curly script on a white background there are some footprints and nude female silhouettes a candle and a broomstick.

Do girls not have fangs?

Bruno Cooke reviews The Book of Bad Betties (Bad Betty, 2021) edited by Vanessa Kisuule and Anja Konig
The word C+nto in white text on a gold background, underneath is the text "& othered poems" in black. Both fonts are serif.

Her fear is a dress she can no longer fit into

Bruno Cooke reviews C+nto: & Othered Poems by Joelle Taylor (Saqi Books, 2021)
Slug by Hollie McNish, orange text on a purple background

Slug snog

Bruno Cooke reviews Slug by Hollie McNish (Little, Brown, 2021)
photo of Kae Tempest, short hair, black polo shirt

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

Bruno Cooke traces the development of Kae Tempest
Close up of the two book covers, the Hit Points Anthologies, one red one green

I don’t think Death has used a PlayStation before

Bruno Cooke reviews Hit Points — an anthology of video game poetry, edited by Aaron Kent and Matthew Haigh (Broken Sleep, 2021)
family photo of six people plus cat from the 1918 flu pandemic

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
photo of Joelle Taylor with very short blonde hair in a flowery shirt speaking into a mic

You who found your dream but could not spell it

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