The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

Maggie Mackay

Photobombing Dad’s moment

Photobombing Dad’s moment

by Maggie Mackay — I am playing fiddle with the Volga boatmen. / My father conducts from the riverbank. / His baton swings like a machete.
Some part words in yellow font on a green background. Basically, the cover of this book is yellow text on a green background, so to make it look just a little bit more interesting for the front page I have zoomed right in and cropped the image. Voilà.

Something beginning with earth

Maggie Mackay reviews Desperate Fishwives by Lindsay Macgregor (Molecular Press, Geneva, 2022)
Black background with the face of a china doll, cracked, with piercing blue eyes.

Your gift living on in cracked pots carried from garden to garden 

Maggie Mackay reviews The Doll's Hospital by Jenny Robb (Yaffle, 2022)
A painting of a woman shelling peas, the clouds are bright, she has red hair and a blue blouse with small white flowers on it

Woods, words, a sword of spells bunched up on a larch

Maggie Mackay reviews Shelling Peas with My Grandmother in the Gorgiolands by Sarah Wimbush (Bloodaxe, 2022)
The three pamphlet covers, Sarah's is white with a green diagonal flash, Judi's has the title in a blue oval on a background pencil drawing of a river and rocks and Hugo's is the shadow of banister railings non a light brown background.

Three pamphlets: Sarah Mnatzaganian, Judi Sutherland and Hugo Williams

Matthew Paul reviews Lemonade in the Armenian Quarter by Sarah Mnatzaganian, Maggie Mackay reviews Following Teisa by Judi Sutherland and Hilary Menos reviews Badlands by Hugo Williams
Four black and white head shots of the poets in this article arranged in a grid

Four thrilling new worlds

Maggie Mackay looks at the four winning pamphlets of The Poetry Business International Book & Pamphlet Competition 2021
Edwin Morgan in front of a large bookcase

The Edwin Morgan Poetry Award 2020

Maggie Mackay considers pamphlets by the winner, runner up and shortlisted poets, and looks at what they have done since