GPH7 Dairy Icecream
MO7
FHP7
WHEN YOU SAIL AMONGST SHARKS
Your senses sharpen.
You find yourself looking for shadows,
darkening every grey.
You fear the red and everything
it gives away about you.
You find yourself checking for leaks,
forgetting to notice the view,
cold even though the sun is shining.
Sue Finch
Jane Sharp
Ice-Cream Pain
(GPH07,MO7)
There is no joy,
without a promise of pain
Ice-cream grows fangs
Then attacks the brain
And friendships all end
In sorrow
When someone leaves
Even if they don’t mean to.
There is no joy
without the promise of pain
Even ice-cream grows fangs
To attack the brain
And sugar rots the life
from man
For sweetness has a price,
But its price
Is worth the cost
For what you gain.
Luke Meyers
7
A joy you wonder
if you’ll ever taste again
good ice cream, and love
Lin Hart
GPH07
…and the only thing that’d
make you laugh
once
infectiously
shuts down
as if in a pandemic…
C Oulens
Fhp – 7
Magic seeds –
I’ve got vegetables growing out of my head,
‘cause I ate some magic glowing seeds
Please understand I did it, I wasn’t force fed.
I’ve got vegetables growing out of my head,
Could be broccoli or another crop instead.
I wont go hungry, just harvest and feed.
I’ve got vegetables growing out of my head,
‘cause I ate some magic glowing seeds
Dave Ashley
GPH07, FHP7
Born But to Die
i)
I am stunned, confused, overwhelmed by grief;
I woke up today to find time, the thief,
Lies here in my bed, propped up by unease,
My body aching, now seventy-three.
What then, exactly, has happened to me?
I once was a child, dreaming of the sea;
Everything is lost, naught, eventually:
The sun fails to shine, and in due course, I.
My parents once loved, but now they are gone,
The boardwalk I ran fell into the ground,
My smiling grandma, a distant memory,
My self respect now my summer, it seems.
All has tumbled down, the cement now cracks
Over my eyes as I prepare to die.
ii)
The cucaracha split into two parts;
Fell out of the egg a boy just the same;
The baby boy had two spiralling horns
That pierced the sky wherever he would roam.
Pink as the petals, thin, slim, and now tall,
But he's born to die, the same as them all;
He catches the doves falling out the sky,
And he never stops once to ask them why.
The doves fall on him, and screaming they cry,
Why do you kill me? I fly not to die!
You are a land fowl, soon destined to die
By the butcher’s knife, but ever we fly
With love in our eyes, no matter whether
You’re born but to die and never know why.
©️Elizabeth Cusack
for Wombwell Rainbow
5 April, 2026
look see this coming
Those who had skin in the game, open wounds.
Whipped and scooped screams with hundreds
and thousands and freedom we bring will loom.
“You’ve complicated energy.” she said.
“I see a lot of different things spike
happenings in your life, push, pull tension.”
Can entropy be reversed? Let be light.
Can we recreate ourselves? Another version.
The enchantment of multicoloured crown
foliage, hundreds and thousands sprinkled.
Autumnal icecream forests fresh confound
the tongues that retreat into wrinkles.
Literally can’t sleep when you say
I will make painful everyday.
Paul Brookes
Artworker Bios And Artistic Statements
Molly Ovenden (MO)
Artist Statement:
In this April 2026 collection, “New Light, Returning Daily,” I wanted to explore using familiar materials with unfamiliar methods. I combined off-cuts from my “scrapings” paintings, pages from a rescued Bible that had been damaged, and a variety of mixed media materials to make something new with collage in a cohesive collection. When I consider how day-to-day life can feel mundane, the same day-after-day, or simply a repeat of dull life that offers next to no progress, I easily miss the beauty in small, secret, quiet moments. As this series of 30 pieces unfolds, I created it to capture the variety, emotions, beauty, and depth of everyday life on the daily; viewing each piece (or, each day this month) separately may reveal one thing for a viewer, but to experience each piece together may offer a new perspective, a new light, on our everyday mundane upon returning daily.
Bio:
Molly Ovenden is a contemplative poet and painter based in Leeds, England. She writes poems for people on the spot with her vintage typewriter and moments of emotion through expressive abstract paintings. For Molly, inspiration comes from running and wandering through nature, seeking God in everyday small moments, and holding spaces for people to be present with emotions. Molly believes that everyone is made to create: whether they paint or write poetry, or build literal bridges as a civil engineer or relational bridges as a great neighbour, it all takes creativity. The concept “Beauty is an arrow of Hope that points to Peace” drives Molly to capture, create, and share beauty with others–especially through poems and paintings.
Contact for Availability and Purchasing:
To view full collection, visit: https://mollyovenden.com/art/
To contact for availability and Purchasing – UK only shipping – visit: https://mollyovenden.com/contact/Facebook | Instagram – @mollyovendencreativity For Blog About Artwork, visit:
Phil Hyde
GP Hyde was born on the Wirral and now lives in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, UK. He studied fine art and photography at Goldsmith’s College and at the Royal Academy Schools. He worked in theatre, art centres and community arts as a photographer, writer and production manager for 14 years and as a lecturer and senior manager in creative arts for 25 years.
His photography has been featured in Underbelly Press in issues 5 and 6. His influences include Tony Ray Jones, Martin Parr and Tom Wood.
socials: @gphydeauthor
Francis H Powell
Francis H. Powell studied both painting and printmaking at art schools in Britain, obtaining a Master of Arts degree. Since leaving art school, he has participated in exhibitions in both the UK and France, including group exhibitions and solo shows. His work ranges across paintings, drawings, mixed media, sculptures, and installations, sometimes incorporating political themes, such as plastic waste in the sea. His installations also include soundscapes and video. In addition to his visual art, his illustrations have been included in books.
Below is a list of exhibitions…
Exhibitions 20252024//2023 Salon d’art de Moret-Loing-et-Orvanne
2022 show Studio 58, Brittany 2015 One man show Style Pixie Gallery 2008 one man show gallerie L’Usine Paris 2007 one man show Theatre du Poche. Chartres. 2006 l’église de L’hôpital de la Salpêtrière 2006 Carrousel du Louvre 2005 Group Exhibition IVY Gallery Bastille 2005 Vente Art Contemporain, Paris and Marseille. (for Aides charity) 2001 Live Art Show le Divan du Monde Paris. 1987 Final Post graduate show, Wimbledon School of Art. 1987 Royal Society of Painter, Etchers and Engravers, Bankside Gallery 1986 “In and out of print”, Swiss College Library Exhibition Hall 1985 Studies in composition (the Professor studio) the Royal College of Art 1983 Leicestershire Collection for schools and Colleges Baumanor Hall 1983 Stowells Trophy Royal Academy 1983 Windsor and Newton Finalist Royal Institute of Painters Mall Gallery Studied at 1985-87 Wimbledon School of Art MA printmaking. 1979-80 Eastbourne College of Art 1980-83 Glos College of Art and Technology BA (Hons) painting
Author Bios:
Jen Thorne
C. Oulens
is an emerging poet and former academic from India. Winner of the 3rd Annual Poe-It Like Poe 2025 poetry contest, her work has been published or is forthcoming in The Broken Spine, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, The Candyman’s Trumpet, Eunoia Review, Spillwords Press, The Starbeck Orion, Temple in a City, Sixty Odd Poets, SHINE International, The Book Bag, FromOneLine, SciFanSat, Verseve and in haiku journals including Pan Haiku Review, 575 Haiku Journal, Poetry Pea, The Wee Sparrows, Haiku Pause, The Solitary Daisy, Folk Ku, Failed Haiku, and Heterodox Haiku. Explore her works on Bluesky @owlnsquirrels1111.bsky.social.
Jane Sharp
Donna Faulkner
lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. Free spirited and unconventional, she came to the business of writing later in life. She’s published in The Madrid Review , Alchemy Spoon, The Bayou Review, 300 Days of Sun, Windward Review, Havik, New Myths, and many others. Her poetry book In Silver Majesty was published by the UK based erbacce press in 2024.https://www.erbacce-press.co.uk/donna-faulkner
Instagram: @lady_lilith_poet X@nee_miller
Website: https://linktr.ee/donnafaulkner
Lin Hart
Lin describes herself as a poet, satirist, and zinester from West Virginia. A married, mother of two who eats numbers for work and is definitely a neurospicy cryptid in disguise. Find out more on Bluesky.
Luke Meyers
Luke is a Welsh performer and poet who discovered a love of writing during the lockdown. Luke mainly writes on Bluesky @sonnetsmith.bsky.social but has also been published in a couple of publications, including the British Fantasy Journal, Icebrakers Lit. Muse Pie Press, From One Line, and Oatleaf Poetry Journal.
Sue Finch
Sue Finch is the author of Magnifying Glass, Welcome to the Museum of a Life, and Vortex Over Wave. She loves the coast, peculiar things, and the scent of ice-cream freezers.
Mick Jenkinson
Jenni Thorne
is a writer from the Black Country in the UK, and winner of the New2theScene poetry prize for 2025, and has had her work published in various poetry collections and on-line jornals including Starbeck Orion, Ink, Sweat and Tears, April Showers, Dark Poets, Broken Spine and the Sixty Odd Poets Heresy collection.
Her work explores the weight of the ordinary, the need for belonging, and the way the lessons of the past and the pressures of modern life shape us.
She shares her writing on Bluesky @jenthorne.bsky.social.
The Wombwell Rainbow 