The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

February 2024 Frip

Ryan Van Winkle standing in front of a stone wall. He has glasses and a grey jacket.

In Conversation with Ryan Van Winkle

We talk to Ryan Van Winkle, the new Artistic Director for StAnza
Photograph of a pattern poem showing horizontal and vertical lines of text with the letters SALVS superimposed.

Medieval Pattern Poems of Rabanus Maurus

Sam Dolbear and Adam Green look at some 9th century examples of "pattern poetry"
Photograph of a long shed-like house on iron stilts.

All the bridges are down

Carl Tomlinson reviews Between A Drowning Man by Martyn Crucefix (Salt, 2023)
Castaway Companions

Castaway Companions

Sarah Leavesley chooses poems by Matthew Arnold, Jacques Prévert and Lorine Niedecker
Part of a slightly abstract painting showing (I think) a mirror (or window), a blue door, and some red vertical lines that could be curtains ... or a draped scarf ... or something.

This ritual of witness and professionalism

D.A. Prince reviews The Sessions by Jonathan Totman (Pindrop Press, 2023)
Letters from the book title arranged vertically in three columns on a grey-green background. The letters are coloured in patterns go green and white that seem to suggest leaves, or trees. Yeah, I dunno either.

The man will carry this void

Rory Waterman reviews Missing Person by Nicholas Hogg (Broken Sleep Books, 2023)
A waterfall on a foggy mountainside. It's high, and the middle of ... well, you get it.

We have an opportunity to listen 

Maggie Mackay reviews High Nowhere by Jean Atkin (Indigo Dreams, 2023)
Close up of a doorknocker on a large old wooden door. The knocker is metal and shows a pig or boar with a ring in its mouth.

The Leeds Mummy abandons his chariot

Tim Murphy reviews A to Z of Superstitions by Ian Harker (Yaffle Press, 2023)
Cliff Yates' poetry bookshelf — a shelf with poetry books on.

Staring an instant out of the dark

Cliff Yates treats us to a tour of his poetry bookshelf