The photograph that accompanies this post is of the old railway crossing in Copnor, where a bridge now stands. Apart from large scale slum / post war clearances and rebuilds, many of the changes to city streets are piecemeal. A junction realigned, an old factory knocked down, a local shop converted into a house. My grandmother used to run a general store in Porchester Road, North End. I was born after it was closed, shop…
Here’s a poem that was first published in Poetry and all that Jazz last year. The title is meant to be ambiguous. I wanted to use the title to add a layer or layers of different potential interpretations. What decision, and who has made it? And does the ending refer to the decision itself or the narrators reaction to it? Is it a reaction to the Kestrel or the prey? Or is the whole poem…
A couple of short poems that appeared on a tweet last week – from the latest edition of Renesme Literary (a Twitter based publication). They are part of a sequence of primarily prose based poems, with a few hiabun thrown in, linking themes around driving, childhood, mental health and Tangerine Dream. Mainstream it isn’t! The sequence is now done, so it’s a case of working out how to get it published now.
Another addition to my poems page; A short poem which appeared on the Green Ink poetry website in June last year; Sea Life Centre Confessional They seem happy enough,in fake coral reefsbehind finger-smudged glass.I know we shouldn’t touch.I know,this is what the signs say,but whoever pays attentionto rules like that?
I’m planning on going to this event next week – both Greg and Pratibha are excellent poets, and I have collections of theirs to review when I get the chance. More details below ARTS JUNCTION, ARUNDEL, on Mon 12th September, 7.30pm features Greg Freeman reading from Marples Must Go and Pratibha Castle reading from A Triptych of Birds and a Few Loose Feathers, plus new poems. And there’s Drip Action Theatre Company, live music and…
I’ve just added a prose piece to my poems page – it first appeared on the Interstellar Literary Review website back in 2021. It’s one of a long sequence of prose poems / flash fiction work that should be published next year. It was my first acceptance from a United States based magazine – another little goal I set myself accomplished! Three Car Incident at Twyford Down And so we wait. Strangers together in stationary…
I’m starting up my occasional book & pamphlet review posts again after an absence of over a year. As before, these will all be of books that I have copies of on my poetry bookshelf. They aren’t always going to be straightforward reviews – I may use them as a springboard towards other subjects or commentary on the authors’ work elsewhere. First up this time is Louise Mather’s The Dredging of Rituals, published through Amazon,…
An event which might be of interest to some (it looks good but I won’t be able to make it). Come and join us at Escape to the Farm on Saturday September 10th in the idyllic countryside near Hambledon as The Front Room is part of a nurturing event featuring activity such as yoga , tai chi, meditation as well as great music and poetry. The event is designed to keep families entertained and there…
AGENDA POETRY EVENING with David Harsent, Patricia McCarthy, Timothy Ades, Barry Smith, John O’Donoghue, Elizabeth Barton, Josephine Balmer and South Downs poets, the White Hart hotel, 55 High Street, Lewes, BN7 1XE, Sat 13 August, 6pm. Join us at this historic hotel where Tom Paine and the Headstrong Club met, for an early evening of local and global poetry organised by the famous literary journal, Agenda, and the South Downs Poetry Festival Music by Nigel Horn on…
Tarnishing and Rust On empire’s home-port shore,an old strength resisting.Lucknow to Sierra Leone,yellow fever to mutiny,marble balm for victories’ loss. A row of forgotten obelisks;lists of salt-seasoned names,of letters that shined like surffused in iron and brass,to seal a collective sigh. But stone flakes into shrapnel, the once hard edges of words,soft and reddening. Metal breaks down and dissolvesinto the reckoning earth. First published in Poetry & All That Jazz (2021) Portsmouth is full of monuments to…