SK6

JZ6

SEB6

Aquarius (riding the staticwave)

in response to artwork ‘Stone Tower, Laurel Creek’ by Sara Bell

after Pippa Phillips

A pheasant in a tree is as unusual as a starless sky — you are able to recognise possibilities within a yolk. Rummage the pantry for a scrap meal, but eat with silverware. An owl by the window is harbinger of cold storms. Feather sail on paper boat will cross you the stream; be deliberate about railing red kites. Search a frog in a babbling brook in a pixie forest, count its spots then set it free. Collect emerging water lily mourning the loss of its amour fox. Trust as much as a stone amid sting-corals. Heed the imploding sky.

-Sheikha A.

-Donna Faulkner

Jz 6

Scorched

I am the ember that never fades,
a wildfire stitched into my veins.
Red skies tremble at my touch,
smoke curls in my lungs,
ashes whisper my name.

I do not burn for warmth,
nor for light,
but because I do not know how to stop.
Too much, too deep, too fierce,
I love, I break, I rise again,
a flame that refuses to die.


SEB 6

The Solitude of Stone

Alone, yet unyielding, it stands,
worn smooth by the river’s quiet persistence,
etched with the passage of time.
Water comes and goes, shaping, softening,
but never breaking what refuses to break.

It does not call for hands to steady it.
It does not beg the current for mercy.
It simply remains, rooted in silence,
bearing the weight of its own existence.

Perhaps that is the fate of the strong,
to endure not because they wish to,
but because they know nothing else.


SK 6

Solitude in Motion

They move as one, yet each alone,
skimming the surface of a silent world.
The water does not question them,
the sky does not call them home.

Drifting, gliding, never still,
they follow currents only they can feel.
No tether, no anchor, no final shore,
only the quiet ache of belonging and distance.

The wind knows their names but does not speak.
The waves reach for them but never hold.
Even together, they are travelers,
always near, yet never touched.

-Rituparna

Jz6

If paintings
can make prophecies
nothing bodes well
earthquakes and fires
like a scene from hell
Perhaps this is a waking call
to seek out new ways

-Francis H. Powell

SEB6

Stones
Ancient volcanic stones, blue-grey, white in sunshine, 
settle in ever-running streams sourced by springs 
on high northern slopes, silvered to the eye, 
as mined for centuries where sulphurated air 
spewed from tall chimneys, settled in valleys.

Now leisure walkers and pilgrims seek healthy lives, 
stop by shingle-beached banks, 
leave their mark; 
balance flat stones like stotties, 
topped-off by black pebbles, teetering flints; 
cairns, built as high as a man or low as dogs, 
stumble by silted logs in shadowed scrub. 

Who can read the untold imprints here?
When hard rains flash-flood who will hear them crumble?

-Judy Smith

-Phil Hyde

Static in the Spectrum, based on Artwork by JZ6

Red bleeds into yellow,
anger warming to ache.
The mind stares through
concrete towers of thought;
faintly lit, but silent.
A line of red cuts across,
straight, stubborn;
logic or longing,
I can’t tell which.

Noise smears the corners.
Memories?
Mistakes?
Hope?

Color is not clarity.
It’s distraction.
And I’m pulled;
left, right,
inward.

Still,
I look.

=Anish Gupta

Artworker Bios

Jenn Zed
Ms. Zed is an artist, writer, and musician who lives in Bath, England, with the ghost of her cat.
She studied art, art history, and design MA at Bath and Cambridge Universities.

Sara Elizabeth Bell

Says:

I’ve always loved drawing. It’s a form of meditation for me and has now become a way for me to find peace and sanity when my world gets too overwhelming, which, as a single mom with a neuro-divergent teen, happens quite often. When it does, I follow John Muir’s quote, “Off into the woods I go to loose my mind and find my soul.”
The results of those trips are  sketches of the forests around me and photos. I work from the photos to create my watercolors and intaglio prints. I hope you enjoy them and can find a place in your home to adopt one or more.

Spriha Kant

Spriha Kant is an English poetess, book reviewer, and digital artist. She has been published in some anthologies — “Hidden in Childhood” and “We Are The Waves,” to name a few. Her poems have also been published in the seventh issue of “Reflections,” the well-known literary magazine “Prosetrics.” She has been the Guest of honor in the award-winning show “Victoria in Verse” (Bloomsbury Radio, London). Her interviews can be read at feversofthemind.com & and brokenspine.co.uk. Her quotes are published as an epigraph and a blurb in Magkasintahan Volume VI & Swiped Right [both books published by Ukiyoto Publishing, Philippines], respectively. Her artwork can be seen in a webzine called “The Starbeck Orion” and on thewombwellrainbow.com.

Writer Bios

Debbie Ross,

Debbie is a poet, author, artist, photographer, and baker. She lives 400m from the sea, in the far north Scottish Highlands, and can be mostly be found in the kitchen, at the beach, or at her writing table.

Matt Guntrip,

Matt Guntrip is a guitarist, song writer and indie musician from the UK. He has published four albums & five singles via CD Baby, available on most channels. He was a nominated solo artist on the New Music Generator Show, Cambridge 105FM.

Through creative writing he explores themes of nature, time, love, loss, rejection, injustice and hope, with a view to learning, improving and thus to writing better songs.

Matt’s writing has been published in The Belfast Review, The Broken Spine,  Fevers of The Mind, Folkheart Press Blog, GAS Poetry (YouTube), The Starbeck Orion (Substack) & The Wombwell Rainbow website.

Donna Faulkner,

Donna  Faulkner lives in a cottage in Rangiora, New Zealand with her husband , two sons and Emily, the black Labrador.  She’s been published in 300 Days of Sun, Havik, Windward Review, Havik, Fieldstone Review,  New Myths, Bacopa Literary Review and others. Her debut poetry book ‘In Silver Majesty’ was published by erbacce press(UK) 2024. 

Instagram @lady_lilith_poet/ Twitter @nee_miller. https://linktr.ee/donnafaulkner

Alan McGinn,

Anish Gupta,

Dr. Anish K. Gupta is an Indian urologist and an impassioned poet who writes mainly in English but also dabbles in Hindi and Urdu. His work seamlessly intertwines the exactitude of medical science with the subtleties of human emotion. Grounded in the complementary realms of medicine and art, his path reflects a profound quest for understanding, healing, and the expression of love and life. In the operating room or on the page, Dr. Gupta delves into the intricacies of both body and soul, approaching each with care, curiosity, and compassion. His poetry captures the subtle epiphanies of daily life, the fragility of the human condition, and the deep connections between love and existence. He goes by the #uropoet on X where his handle is @optionurol.

Phil Hyde,

GP Hyde was born on the Wirral and now lives in Grimsby. He studied art at Goldsmith’s and at the Royal Academy Schools. His fiction has been extensively published by Pure Slush. His poetry has been published by Black Bough Press, Hedgehog Press, Written Off, the Dark Poets and voidspacezine

Rituparna,

Rituparna Ghosh is an alumna of the National University of Singapore, an AI engineer, and the founder of Whizzstep. With a passion for poetry, she enjoys crafting verses, particularly in the genres of free verse and reflective poetry. A lover of nature, Rituparna finds peace in her walks by the beach, where the tranquility of the ocean inspires both her creativity and personal reflection. Coding is her profession, and she thrives on solving complex problems through technology. She also has a deep love for traveling, reading, learning new languages, and horse riding, connecting with the outdoors in a unique and fulfilling way.

Francis H Powell,

Judy Smith ,

Judy Smith lives in East Yorkshire. Retired from a career in health and education, she is an emerging poet. She has had poems published in several anthologies, including Spelt, 14, Black Bough, Artemis, High Wolds, Dreich, York Literary Review, The Starbeck Orion. She has a passion for wildlife gardening and community tree planting.

Sheikha A,

Sheikha A. is from Pakistan and United Arab Emirates. Her poems appear in a variety of literary venues both print and online, and some of them have been translated into 8 languages so far. More about her can be found at sheikha82.wordpress.com

John Armstrong,

John Armstrong is a poet whose work blends metaphysical inquiry with vivid, elemental imagery. Drawing from a deep reverence for nature, memory, and the cosmic, Armstrong’s poetry explores dualistic and trinitarian themes of love, transformation, and the spiritual texture of existence.Armstrong sees poetry not merely as a literary form but as a living, animistic force—language shaped by the earth itself. His work is a personal quest, a surrender to the unknown, finding beauty in ambiguity and meaning in the mist between words and life.

Spare time: He grows Cosmos flowers and wills them on way past the first frosts.

Saraswati Nagpal,

John Wolf

Creative writing tutor, poet, storyteller for Read To Write. Taught Beowulf, Odyssey, and Troy; Gilgamesh is coming in October. First poetry collection entitled Heroes (Glasshead Press, 2022). New collection, Historia, out summer 2025. Featured on Radio Sheffield, CAST, Little Theatre, Doncaster Ukranian Centre, Artbomb, Doncaster Foodbank Festival, Under Milk Wood and Women of Troy. 

Oormila V. Prahlad

is a widely published Indian-Australian artist and poet. She lives and works on traditional Gammergal land. Find her on Instagram @oormila_paintings