The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

The Frip

Martyn Crucefix looking at the camera. He has short brownish hair and a blue check shirt.

We are always saying goodbye

Castaway Martyn Crucefix chooses poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Edward Thomas and Rainer Maria Rilke to take to his desert island
Print (an old one by the, look of it) showing a large (for 'large' read enormous) snail with much smaller people wearing hats trying to subdue it with ropes. Some policemen wave sticks and seem to be engaged in a dance ... but maybe it's more sinister! Who knows?

Working off the movement of the earth in space

D.A. Prince reviews Dynamo by Luke Samuel Yates (The Poetry Business, 2023)
A pencil sketch, grey on a cream background. Looks like the branches of a tree.

Letters to Linda

Hilary Menos responds to Letters to Katłįà by Linda France, winner of the Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year prize 2022-2023,
Caricature of Baudelaire. Drawn in 1911, it shows him with wavy black hair, trademark piercing eyes and a moustache.

The Censored Women of Les Fleurs du Mal

Pedro Baños Gallego on the 'forbidden' poems in Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal
Section of book cover. Here we have another in our endless series of abstract art poetry book covers. This is probably from a painting. splashes of bright colours and faded splurges in muted shades blend together as a background whilst bold horizontal slashes of red paint dominate the foreground.

All the blues and greens

Isabelle Thompson reviews Say It With Me by Vanessa Lampert (Seren, 2023)
Pastel shades, probably watercolour, showing a bedroom interior with an open window and a traditional iron bedstead.

These moments, rare and marvellous

Jane Routh reviews The Guest Room by Diana Hendry (Worple Press, 2022)
A posterised image of Britney Spears.

Untitled

The Frip looks at how to find the right title for your poem (or at least not the wrong one)
Close up of a medlar tree showing green leaves and purple fruit.

A Community Reimagined

Chris Edgoose reviews Medlars by Geraldine Clarkson (Shearsman, 2023)
The background is waves of pink and light blue. On top is a line drawing showing hands holding a heart shape with the word 'cursed' on it.

recently i’ve been daydreaming of pete davidson

Mat Riches reviews Poems For Pete Davidson by Ella Sadie Guthrie (Broken Sleep, 2022)
Graphic with a green background showing a repeating motif of drawn black and white bicycles. It would make excellent wallpaper for a keen cyclist.

The Joy of Cycling

Our Spoken Word Editor Bruno Cooke is off round the world on two wheels. He considers the joy of cycling, in poetry.
Woodcuts seem to be very popular as illustrations for poetry book covers. This looks like it is indeed a woodcut (or a clever imposter).Predominantly blue it shows a night scene with a moon and a path leading to a house in the hills.

Rare is this wrought-work

Carl Tomlinson reviews Earth House by Matthew Hollis (Bloodaxe, 2023)
Section of book cover, red background with parts of letters in black and white.

Limos : acceptance, smirom : peace

Maggie Mackay reviews Didicoy by Karen Downs-Barton (Smith|Doorstop Books, 2023)