Beth Brooke

is a Dorset-based poet and her writing is grounded in the Wessex landscape and history. Her debut pamphlet, A Landscape With Birds was published by Hedgehog Poetry in July 2022. Her second pamphlet, Transformations, will be published by Hedgehog next year. The poems are all inspired by the work of Dame Elisabeth Frink, the sculptor and artist.

My hope for next year:
I am looking forward to seeing my poems inspired by the work of Elisabeth Frink. I will be running workshops in the Artists’ Gallery at the Dorset Museum in May 2023 as part of their events celebrating their major exhibition about her life and work.

I am waiting on the outcome of another pamphlet submission. I know it’s made the shortlist so fingers crossed!

I hope I can continue to develop my writing and continue to engage with the poetry community who have given me so much.

Obviously I am also hoping for world peace but I guess that’s a given.

It’s been a great year for my poetry and I love the supportive and exciting poetry community that I have found. Here’s some of my highlights in no particular order:

Dawntreader edition 57 and edition 60 published by Indigo Dreams
Poetry Bus 10: Special Anniversary Edition
Close Up – an anthology of poems about cancer, grief, hope and healing published by Orchard Lea
Demos Rising published by Fly On The Wall
Dreich season 4 issue 11
Cerasus Journal issue 7
Eat The Storms issue 1
A Duet Of Ghosts published by Blackbough
Blackbough Christmas & Winter vol III
Steel Jackdaws e-journal issue 8
https://boatsagainstthecurrent.org/poetry/woodpecker-speaks-to-me-by-beth-brooke

And finally, my debut pamphlet, A Landscape With Birds, published in July 2022 by Hedgehog Poetry Press

 

 

 

 

 

Leftfield Questions

How is a grass snake like garden tools?

What mundane task would a living grass snake do in a home?

How would garden tools be rewilded?

SPRIHA KANT (Poetess and Book Reviewer)

Spriha Kant is a poetess and book reviewer. She was born in Indore (India) and lives with her parents there. She is currently perusing M. Tech in Structural Engineering from IPS Academy.

She developed an interest in poetries at a very tender age. She has inherited this interest from her parents. She is also fond of calligraphy, photography, and paintings and is an intense music lover.

In November 2023, her poetries will be included in a book published by “Move Me Poetry” and she wishes this anthology book to be read by many people.

To know about her literary contributions and achievements, kindly refer to the table and links below:

Anthologies including poetries of Spriha Kant	Sing, Do The Birds of Spring
	Hard Rain Poetry: Forever Dylan
	Bare Bones Writing Issue 1: Fevers of the Mind
	A Whisper Of Your Love
Book Reviews done by Spriha Kant	The Keeper of Aeons by Matthew MC Smith
	Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow
	Washed Away: A Collection of Fragments by Shiksha Dheda
	Spaces by Clive Gresswell
	Silence From the Shadows by Stuart Matthews
Poetry Collaboration	“The Doorsteps Series” with David L O’ Nan
Participation in Events	Celebration for the launch of the debut poetry book “Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow” by Jeff Flesch
	Celebration for the launch of the poetry chapbook “As FolkTaleTeller” by Paul Brookes
Featured Work(s) of Spriha Kant	Seventh Synergy in “SYNERGY: CALLING ALL WRITERS WHO ARE PHOTOGRAPHERS”
Interview Features of Spriha Kant	“Quick-9 Interview” on feversofthemind.com
	“#Broken Asides with Spriha Kant” thebrokenspine.co.uk
Digitally published poetry/poetries	“The Seashell” on Imaginary Land Stories

The following are the links to the interview features of Spriha Kant:

https://feversofthemind.com/2022/09/13/a-fevers-of-the-mind-quick-9-interview-with-poetess-spriha-kant/

https://thebrokenspine.co.uk/2022/12/07/brokenasides-with-spriha-kant/

The following are the links to the book reviews done by Spriha Kant:

https://feversofthemind.com/2022/11/22/a-book-review-of-the-keeper-of-aeons-by-matthew-mc-smith-review-from-spriha-kant/

https://feversofthemind.com/2022/11/02/poetry-book-review-of-nature-speaks-of-love-and-sorrow-by-jeff-flesch-reviewed-by-spriha-kant/

https://feversofthemind.com/2022/10/12/a-book-review-for-washed-away-a-collection-of-fragments-by-shiksha-dheda-review-by-spriha-kant/

https://feversofthemind.com/2022/10/06/a-book-review-of-spaces-by-clive-gresswell-reviewed-by-spriha-kant/

https://feversofthemind.com/2022/09/14/a-book-review-of-silence-from-the-shadows-by-stuart-matthews-review-from-spriha-kant/

Links to the other featured works of Spriha Kant are:

NEW FEATURE: SYNERGY: CALLING ALL WRITERS WHO ARE PHOTOGRAPHERS I will feature your work photos and writing individually on the Wombwell Rainbow. A special feature for you alone. Please DM/message me if you’re interested. Photo essays are great, poems should accompany one of your images that inspired them. Poems within the photos are also great, such a haiku, and so forth. Any theme you choose, at the moment. May get more specific as time goes by. Experimental work most welcome. Our seventh Synergy is from Spriha Kant.

#TheWombwellRainbow #PoeticFormChallenge #Alphabetpoem was last week’s chosen form. Robert Frede Kenter, Jane Dougherty, Tim Fellows, Jane Dougherty, Spriha Kant, Sheryl Lynch, and myself.

#TheWombwellRainbow #PoeticFormChallenge #ACROSTIC was last week’s chosen form. Robert Frede Kenter, Alice Stainer, Tim Fellows, Jane Dougherty, Spriha Kant, Samantha Terrell and myself

Celebrate #NationalPoetryDay today October 6th. Join Neal Zetter, Samantha Terrell, Spriha Kant, Francis Powell, Peter Gaskell, Kevin Sealby, and I. I will feature the best environmental poems that you feel you have written. Please email them to me, including a short third person bio. You may need to follow me first so I can DM you details . Will feature more throughout the day, but be absent from 14:30-20:30 on my supermarket shift.

World Suicide Prevention Day

Celebrate #WorldSmileDay I will feature your published/unpublished poetry/short prose/artworks about smiling, or that features a smile. Please include a short third person bio in your email to me.

Mark #WorldMenopauseDay2022 I will feature your published/unpublished poetry/short prose/artworks about the menopause. Please include a short third person bio.

https://www.imaginarylandstories.com/contest/the-seashell/

Links to the Poetry Collaborations are:

https://feversofthemind.com/2022/10/24/poetry-collaboration-with-spriha-kant-and-david-l-onan-the-doorsteps-series/

https://jeffflesch.com/2022/10/11/naturespeaks-30-poems-in-30-days-day-18-stay-away-by-spriha-kant/

 

The virelai

is a French poetic form with alternating rhymes and line lengths. Here are basic guidelines:

nine lines per stanza

lines one, two, four, five, seven, and eight have five syllables

lines three, six, and nine have two syllables

the five-syllable lines rhyme with each other and the two-syllable lines rhyme with each other to make the following rhyme patter: aabaabaab

the end rhyme for the short lines continues on in the following stanza

the final stanza’s short-line end rhyme should be the same as the long-line end rhyme in the opening stanza (to complete the end-rhyme circle)

Note on stanzas: This form can contain as few as two stanzas to infinity (if you could write that many).

Helpful  LInks

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/virelai-poetic-forms

Virelai

 

 

 

 

 

Leftfield Questions

How is a weasel like a breadboard?

What mundane task would a living weasel do in a home?

How would a breadboard be rewilded?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leftfield Questions

How is a pine marten like making a bed?

What mundane task would a living pine marten do in a home?

How would making a bed be rewilded?

Heavens
A setting sun
whose work is done
lets colours run
from dark of night

The ancient stars
shine from afar
a sky of tar
timeless delight

The planets glow
their route they know
a steady glow
from dim to bright

They mark our days
our months, our ways
and always stay
within our sight

How Did It Go?

I found this format tricky and very constraining. Maybe it works better in Welsh. I did try the longer version but that just made it trickier.

Tim Fellows

Wind and leaves

The wind blows cold
and strips the gold
of trees grown old;
they have their dreams.

Like stars, leaves fall,
tossed by the squall
beyond recall,
in rust red streams.

Such wealth they’ve lost,
by tempest tossed,
I’d save from frost
had I the means.

In my palm held,
each coin tree-spelled,
gold treasure shelled,
leaf richly gleams.

How did it go?
It’s the first one I wrote, and I’ve written a couple more. It’s an addictive sort of form.
It’s a nice rhythmic concept. Works best, I think when the stanzas run on, something I’ll work on for next time.

Jane Dougherty

In Striations of A Struggle – (A Rhupunt)

One day after
Broken laughter
Falls to slaughter,
Climb your ladder.
Candle wax falls.

Seal up the room
Throw hand of runes
Sing the old tunes,
More times till soon.
Vocalist calls.

Wet spring will ring
More floods we sing,
We hug and cling
To summer’s fling.
Rest, wait in halls.

Autumn calls to
A clanging bell.
November of
Marionettes,
Shadows on walls.

How Did It Go?

Rhupunt is an old Welsh form, with fixed metre; an Ode metre (awdl) in the original Welsh language. Working with this form, a kind of dark, opaque sense emerged. My first encounter with this form, I had the sense of working in a forge, banging words as if one were hammering metal into pulsing form. I laid out the basic structure for end rhymes & four lines per stanza and created a four-stanza poem. At the end, I added the final lines & their secondary rhyming scheme. This final line enables a deepening of the music and vision of the created world, a kind of echoing call and response, a choral referent to the four lines above. I kept switching words around though I stayed with the initial, intuitive end rhyme. I felt a need to strengthen the images. It’s a very compact form; each line only allowed 4 syllables. I tried to move between single syllable words and compound words when possible, again, to increase the music and mood, and as a final gesture, added points of punctuation. I’m happy with the result, an almost abstract, third-person public song form for a dark season – Robert Frede Kenter http://www.icefloepress.net

Robert Frede Kenter

Bios and linksa

Robert Frede Kenter is a Pushcart nominated poet, editor, visual artist, multiple grant recipient & EIC/Publisher of Ice Floe Press http://www.icefloepress.net. Recent publications incl. EDEN (2021), work in the Anthology, The Book of Penteract (Penteract Press, 2022), work forthcoming in the Anthology, Seeing in Tongues (Steel Incisors, 2023), and recent journals incl. Acropolis, CutbowQ, Feral, Erato, WatchYrHead, Anthropocene, Scissors & Spackle, Anti-Heroin Chic. Robert lives in Toronto with CFS/ME, sometimes sidelined, never out of the game. Twitter: @frede_kenter, IG: r.f.k.vispocityshuffle.

 

 

 

 

 

Leftfield Questions

How is a dormouse like bookshelves ?

What mundane task would a living dormouse do in a home?

How would bookshelves be rewilded?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leftfield Questions

How is a seal like a chest of drawers?

What mundane task would a living seal do in a home?

How would a chest of drawers be rewilded?