JZ10

SEB10

SK10

Leo (transit of a blooming sun)

in response to artwork ‘Poppy Dreaming’ by Sara Bell

after Pippa Phillips

Grow an August poppy to symbolise the topaz nature of wealth. Warm disposition is frost’s misconception; late solstice recovers from barrage of eclipses. The sun cannot be commanded to hang loose as a thread on fabric of inherence. You must journey at speed of an eagle wearing blinders — causation is a tool to depute wisely. Remember success on shifted rail tracks accumulates motion in absence of rust. A thin film stretched out of propensity may duress, hence pull only as much as you can push. Dreams endure all estimates.

-Sheikha A.

Jz10

Papavers
Orange, happy yellow, purple and red
Papavers excite their dilated eyes,
Innocent bystanders nod together
Understated seeds scatter for gardeners,
Mindful to control their easy spread.

History shows poppies grew in ancient
Egypt, Greece, China, across the Silk Road.
Religious scribes tell of its use for pain
Only now we know of insane addictions.
Ichor oozing from glaucous seed-heads, scraped
Narcotic poison pods; look only, don’t touch.

Judy Smith

-Phil Hyde

Jz 10

Poppies in a Memory Mist

I don’t remember the place,
just the way the light fell,
soft, like it was trying not to disturb anything.

The poppies stood still,
as if they, too, were remembering something.
Not loud. Not bright.
Just there,
like a feeling I hadn’t spoken aloud.

Some moments don’t come back in full.
They return as a pause,
a scent,
a quiet that knows your name.

SEB 10

The Soft Courage

The petals open like a memory,
half-remembered, half-longed for.
Their edges hold the warmth of something once felt,
a sunset thought, a quiet ache.
They rise without needing reason,
drawn by the hush between light and shadow.
In their trembling bloom,
there is no need to dazzle.
Only the soft courage to keep growing,
even when no one is watching.

SK 10

Born from Fire

I am not a petal.
I am the flame that shapes it.
I carry the weight of women who came before me,
and the echo of those who dared to speak.

I was not created in comfort.
I was carved out of resistance,
shaped in shadows,
tempered by truth.

I do not ask for softness.
I do not wait for permission.
I rise because I choose to,
because silence was never my story.

My hands remember how to hold,
but they also remember how to fight.
I have touched tenderness,
but I do not live there.

There is fire in my voice
and steel in my breath.
My presence is not meant to please,
it is meant to claim.

I walk into rooms like I own my place in them.
Because I do.
Because I’ve earned it
with every bruise that became bone,
every wound that turned into wisdom.

This is not a poem of survival.
It is a declaration.
I am here.
I am whole.
I am her.

-Rituparna

Sk10

Eschscholzia californica


California sunlight,

cup of gold,

a golden heliotrope,

petals pulled

by our binary star.

-Debbie Ross

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