The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

The Frip

Image of a white skull on a black background. The skull has a pink flower in the right eye socket.

Say I was born in peacetime

Annie Fisher reviews Ruin, Blossom by John Burnside (Cape, 2024)
Woodcut showing a woman holding a baby.

Oh tears and blood

Hilary Menos reviews The Snow Globe by Jenny Pagdin (Nine Arches, 2024)
Section from a painting showing pair of well worn leather boots, hobnails on the soles.

Sequins stay sequins

D. A. Prince reviews The Asking: New and Selected Poems by Jane Hirshfield (Bloodaxe, 2024)
Close up photograph of a buttercup flower, blurred water is behind.

Alert, electric, alive

Maggie Mackay reviews A Change in the Air by Jane Clarke (Bloodaxe, 2023)
A blurry image that shows the sky in a light lilac hue. There are brown buildings at the bottom and three birds fly in from the right.

Across the border

Isabelle Thompson reviews Come Here to This Gate by Rory Waterman (Carcanet, 2024)
Section of what looks like a red tapestry showing a woman a unicorn and a fruit tree. the woman is sitting and the unicorn is resting its front hooves on the woman's leg. The tree remains impassive.

Embroidering a priest

Carl Tomlinson reviews Eleanor Among The Saints by Rachel Mann (Carcanet, 2024)
Two green arrows show road directions and the letters A34 are shown in yellow.

What clings to its underside

Stephen Payne reviews House on the A34 by Philip Hancock (CB Editions, 2023)
A photograph of Taylor Swift taking a vinyl disc from its sleeve. the album is hers, the cover shows the normal rock'n'roll stuff, you know, woman in underwear lying on a bed etc.

Lunar valleys in my mind

Is Taylor Swift a 'tortured poet'? Bruno Cooke listens to her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, to find out
A black background with a painting of a vertical hand. A small red snake is entwined in the fingers and the tail seems to be piercing the palm.

Regal, speared, violent

Michael Grieve reviews Rapture’s Road by Seán Hewitt (Penguin Books, 2024)
Painting of leaves on a gold background, There is bay, and possibly corn.

Alive as the bay tree

Mat Riches reviews Variety Turns by Christopher Arksey (Broken Sleep Books, 2024)
The words 'God Complex' in a yellow serif font on a light green background. Its a Faber cover. I think that they are a bit dull to be honest ... but you know, one person's dull is the other person's classic.

How wholly are we to be pressed?

Will Snelling reviews God Complex by Rachael Allen (Faber, 2024)
A painted book cover with a blue background. A thick swirling dark blue brush stroke bisects the page horizontally. three partial circles hover in the background like alien planets. Light blue, mid blue and (nope not another blue) red.

Pangolins and Plainsong

Annie Fisher reviews Words of Mercury by Alasdair Paterson (Shearsman Books, 2024)