The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

The Frip

Close up of text on Elizabeth Bishop's gravestone. Under her name It says "All the untidy activity continues, awful but cheerful"

All Quite Thoroughly Dirty (Part Two)

Alan Buckley continues his close reading of ‘Filling Station’ by Elizabeth Bishop (Part Two)
A woman holding a microphone. She is on stage with some funky purple and blue lighting.

This is for the poets

Bruno Cooke says the new Forward Prize category for Best Single Poem – Performed shows that the literary establishment is finally starting to take an interest in Spoken Word Poetry
Mostly orange and orange tinted cover showing what looks like a woman's face half hidden by something that appears to be a vertical semi transparent column with thin diagonal white stripes on it.

Monsoon night-song

Steven Lovatt reviews Mother of Flip-Flops by Mukahang Limbu (Out-Spoken Press, 2022)
Black and white photo showing Elizabeth Bishop standing in front of some rocks.

All Quite Thoroughly Dirty

Alan Buckley looks at ‘Filling Station’ by Elizabeth Bishop (Part One)
Delicate watercolour showing thin branches with red flowers and two small birds flying nearby.

There are some things that can’t be washed away

Tim Murphy reviews Sing Me Down from the Dark by Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana (Salt, 2022)
Now, If you have been paying attention you will have noticed my increasing frustration with book covers that really show no effort. This one is kind of pinkish with a cartridge paper like lined texture, almost as if they hade made the cover from, well, pinkish cartridge paper.

Images of aftermath

Mat Riches reviews Exposed Staircase by Will Eaves (Rack Press, 2022)
A photograph of Phillip Gross. He is looking quizzical and has grey hair and a beard.

The difficult visiting times

Philip Gross discusses writing poetry about his family in The Wasting Game and Deep Field, the importance of self-knowledge, and what makes a 'good' poem
Black and white image showing what looks like abstracted, shrouded figures.

One Woman Revolution

Chris Edgoose reviews White/Other by Fran Lock
A line drawing showing an anchor and a compass on a cream background.

A slick torpedo hurled from the blue depths

Isabelle Thompson reviews Temporary Stasis by Lucy Holme (Broken Sleep Books, 2022)
A photograph of Mercy and Jordan in Kampala. They are smiling.

Poetry in Uganda

Rowan Bell visits Kampala and meets Mercy Geno Apachi, performance poet, and Jordan Megolonyo, founder of the Klan poetry house
Avid alt text readers will notice that sometimes I am at a loss to pull meaning from a bewildering array of abstract book covers, this one is more figurative in nature, though not entirely clear. It appears to be painting of a crystal fruit bowl with what looks like an explosion of silhouetted grapes ... or cherries ... fruit anyway ... or maybe berries.

More life!

Stephen Payne reviews Scenes from Life on Earth by Kathryn Simmonds (Salt, 2022)
Cream text on a red background. For added excitement, this text is vertical!

Yielding to water

Clare Best reviews The Water People / Gens de l’eau by Vénus Khoury-Ghata, translated by Marilyn Hacker (Poetry Translation Centre, 2022)