The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

Martin Figura

A round yellow ball with two eyes and a big smile.

This barter of enthusiasm 3

Mike Barlow, Helena Nelson and Martin Figura choose favourite funny-serious poems by e. e. cummings, Mark Halliday and Peter Howard

Smiley yellow ball photograph by Chaitanya Pillala on Unsplash
Three pamphlet covers arranged in a fan shape, one has a health worker in PPE on a blue background, one is yellow with black text running down the centre of the page and one is half white with purple text , the other half has what may be a woodcut in what may be ethnic patterns.

Three pamphlets: Martin Figura, Leontia Flynn and Naush Sabah

Khadija Rouf reviews My Name is Mercy by Martin Figura (Fair Acre, 2021), Hilary Menos reviews Nina Simone is Singing by Leontia Flynn (Mariscat Press, 2021), and Mat Riches reviews Litanies by Naush Sabah (Guillemot, 2021)
Saturday Morning

Saturday Morning

by Martin Figura — That paving slab the working week / squared away and set to rest, leave them / to their tea, their Chronicle, the felt pen reek / of circled ads, let unencumbered men // go, go, hungover in their dinted vans