The Frip

Close up of Mike Bartholomew-Biggs' smiling face. He has light coloured hair, a greying small beard and glasses.

We certainly like our poets to be challenging in what they say but perhaps less so in how they say it!

We talk to Mike Bartholomew-Biggs from London Grip about managing poetry reviews, London Grip New Poetry, the re-launch of Poetry in the Crypt, and the joy of maths

Photograph of what looks like a goalpost at dusk. Its hard to tell though, it could be a large staple superimposed on a landscape background.

A good flow is like a fossil / it preserves the time

Bruno Cooke reviews The Lost Chronicle by Polarbear (Bloomsbury, 2022)

Light green textured paper background with two off-centre white dots.

And far away a writer drawing a breath

Regina Weinert reviews Uneasy Pieces by Nancy Campbell (Guillemot Press 2022)

Part of a painting showing a baldheaded figure with a red nose. There is also a bird wrapped in red thread. The figure has a wooden violin tuning peg stuck in one ear.

A way of saying

Matthew Paul reviews Fool by Greta Stoddart (Bloodaxe, 2022)

Black and white print showing a black background with white horizontal stripes. A circle of this is cut out and slid down showing a white background.

The space between bars

Nell Prince reviews Angola, America by Sammy Weaver (Seren, 2022)

Photograph of a wartime Pillbox bunker on a beach.

Hunker

Following on from Steven Lovatt's evisceration of 'heft' and Chris Edgoose's denunciation of 'palimpsest', Jane Routh takes on ‘hunker'

Photo by Mathias Reding

Photo of John Glenday sitting outside in front of a bridge. He is wearing a blue shirt and has a short grey beard and greying hair.

We can never be passengers any more

Alan Buckley gives us his close reading of the poem 'The Walkers' by John Glenday

Pop Art-style graphic showing a 50s style pin-up girl lounging on a big old American car.

Hope is a thing with 1. Fur 2. Down 3. Feathers 4. An exoskeleton

Hilary Menos reviews I Dreamed I Was Emily Dickinson’s Boyfriend by Ron Koertge (Red Hen Press, 2022)

Abstract painting with splashes of colour. Shades of blue and purple on a cream background, some splashy shapes, some more kind of smudgy. All looks a bit cataclysmic.

A spill of yew

Rory Waterman reviews Apostasy by John Burnside (Dare-Gale Press, 2022)

Black and white portrait photograph of Roger Elkin somehow looking both serious and impish.

The Right Questions

Will Daunt looks at the work of Roger Elkin and the critical relevance of his latest project The F Word

Grainy still from a colour film showing two boxers squaring up in a ring.

The Irish word for love

Chris Edgoose reviews Rescue Contraptions by Joe Duggan (tall-lighthouse, 2022)

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