Karen Pierce Gonzalez is an intuitive, award-winning international artist and writer in the San Francisco Bay. Currently she is ‘Sanctuary’ feature artist with two installations, BirdSong and Women of Babylon, at Cloverdale Arts Alliance Gallery alongside international artist James William Moore, and also has artwork included in ExpoMetro: Madrid (June 2026), a digital, international outdoor public art display.
Other credits include recognition as a National Arts Program feature artist (USA), winning collage artist, City Companions (HedgeHog Poetry Press), and invited artist for ‘Salmon Run’(Truckenbrod Gallery), and the ekphrastic project, International Poetry Month (The Wombwell Rainbow).
To date, 98+ of her images journals (including seven covers) have been published in international literary journals. Three of her poetry films appear in (Gas: Poetry, Music, and Art) and her 3D artwork has also been shown in select Pacific West Coast galleries and museums.
In the hour before dawn, When nothing has decided itself yet, Something shifts under the last of the dark Not broken, Not afraid, Only waiting.
From the tangle of what came before, The wolf lifts its head. It has learned the shape of harm And lived through it. Its paws find the ground again, Sure of it.
It moves Not rushing, Not held. The dark loosens from its coat As it goes.
At the edge of light It does not hesitate. It steps forward, And keeps going.
Jen Thorne
GHP 30 Cleethorpes Rock
It’s far out past the front, past the shore past waves breaking past oysters, lobster tails and deep where under sea darkness lives only to break—as waves.
——
MO 30
Eye-sun slips Under indigo—between Plank and slab—stars
Out of April and into May Clear-eyed, showered, talking.
———— FHP 30 Tree Hair
Tree hair! Welcome us back home. Behind clear (now) eyes between two ears— we roamed for a month the wild meadows the sculpture park but bring us home fold arms around us press lips and may we begin.
Comes in dreamless sleep. Slides into your solitude. Full. Black as shadows.
Sue Finch
Childhood Fancies (GPH30, MO30)
I can not for the life of me; now that I am grown, Fathom why the child; who I once was long ago, Would ever choose to munch on sugar set as hard as stone. Yet back when I was younger, I could never comprehend The reason why my parents seemed determined to prevent This confectionary heaven that a stick of rock could send Any child floating up to... Till my teeth had met their end.
Luke Meyers
Jane Sharp
as disinformation
means higher prices, rich make more money. Easter air is full of sweetness even shuttered taste the chocolate factory. Many will die of hunger this season.
Digital prison needs fewer inmates. We need closer attention. Waking up or breaking apart, a comet creates an arc across the sky, silence. Times up.
Chocolate factory permanently closed. An eternal off season. Summer arrives but the streets echo with empty. Locked down. Home confined. Maybe forever.
The rich sell stolen you back to yourself. Unconditional surrender your wealth.
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.
To contact for availability and Purchasing – UK only shipping – visit: https://mollyovenden.com/contact/Facebook | Instagram – @mollyovendencreativity For Blog About Artwork, visit:
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
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.
When I was a kid, dragged past these places by parents eager to protect, all I wanted was to succumb to the beckoning allure of neon bright, bingo calling, coin clashing buildings where esoteric youths stood waiting, cigarettes hanging from limp moustachioed lips as they fed their addictions without shame. Those doorways pulsed like secret invitations, promising something louder than childhood, something humming just beyond my reach.
And then I became the youth, and quickly learned I preferred to smoke my cigarettes across the road, alone except for the sea - its dark, indifferent breath beside me, its endless patience outlasting every machine’s metallic hunger. The lights still called, but I had already stepped into the quiet, choosing the salt cold honesty of waves over the warm deceit of neon seduction.
Jen Thorne
GHP 29 Archway at night
The archway rings of light grey the red bin the distant me moving on past the poetry arcade
In the morning 300 replicas of me will stand on the sands gazing to sea to sunset over oyster beds and ragwort casts and the sand rippled like tree rings focuses the attention of waves.
Dave Garbutt
EARTH BALANCED (MO29)
Right now I am earth balanced, my feet on the ground.
Gravity pulls and love holds me tight.
I am centred by the sun and curious about my shadow.
The phases of the moon are still magic to me.
Above me I imagine the sky and I wonder about the space beyond.
I am listening for faith, catching whispers in drifts.
Sue Finch
If You Go Down the Arcade at Night (GPH29, MO29)
If you go down the arcade at night, You better watch where you roam If you go down the arcade at night, You better not go alone For in the space between the machines Amidst the dust that never gets cleaned You may just find The fright of your life Is waiting
Luke Meyers
Jane Sharp
GPH29
Ravenous
The happy trip is continuous, When you know that you’re alone; I see that you are ravenous.
I’ve seen you are ambiguous; Welcome to the Magic Theatre! The happy trip is continuous.
Please enter if you’re dangerous! What you are missing is here; I see that you are ravenous.
The portal is contiguous; Though you think that you’re alone, The happy trip is continuous.
Oh, step in, do not be oblivious! There are pleasures here; I see that you are ravenous.
I wonder why I ever cared About the pleasures there; The happy trip’s continuous; I see that you are ravenous.
Elizabeth Cusack for The Wombwell Rainbow 26 April, 2026
when everything is amplified
It's not love, it's a trigger for us all. There are prizes to be won if you're rich. We put in boxes things so thoughtful we thought would matter, would enrich
their lives when we were not here. We did not have courage to say when we were there until we see burned children smiling a lot at simplest gift we have given them. Share
a survival map. The most unfiltered data, a prize giving. The sky breaking, keeping you awake. Conflict uncontrolled. Something broke inside me he said, shaking.
War is about weakening currency. means higher prices, rich make more money.
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.
To contact for availability and Purchasing – UK only shipping – visit: https://mollyovenden.com/contact/Facebook | Instagram – @mollyovendencreativity For Blog About Artwork, visit:
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
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.
Air thins, sharp as broken glass, every colour tilting, too bright, too close.
Nerves ignite like struck matches, sparks racing my limbs, urging flight.
I am a figure in motion, all spirals and fire, outrunning my own heartbeat.
Chaos blooms inside my chest, and I ride it, trembling, until the world steadies.
Jen Thorne
FHP 28 Dance
We are here dance! spirals in and spirals out dance! green eyes red lips as we are dance! red leg, green leg, bent leg straight leg dance! watch the band making music dance!
Dave Garbutt
Jane Sharp
Roll up! Roll up! (GPH28, MO28)
Roll up! Roll up! And try your hand Come win the trash that no one wants The toys we stock are all off-brand And break when they’ve been played with once. But in you come, cuz three attempts To make a tin can tower fall Will cost you two pounds fifty pence (Five times the top prize on our stall)
Luke Meyers
THE SHAPE OF YOU (MO28)
is curves and dancing.
You are midnight blue and sunrise orange.
You are cool water and hot chocolate.
You are the song in my heart. You are wisdom and experience.
Sue Finch
GPH28
Compensense
Crypto demons
with finger-like claws
bear gifts,
dangle temptations.
The coinage rotates, rolls out, moves in formation from a central axis.
From the vendor she takes the coin, an uncrowned king with endangered fish.
She takes him to be mint, receives two hundred compensense.
There are two ground invasions to suffer. Must be moral or strategic purpose. Shock, sadness and relief is a teacher. Lights are sign language. Arcade brightness.
A map of the ocean floor was created to attract gamblers and test temptation. It's an amazing price we have she said. Home improvement. Someone with a vision.
We're going to win because we're lethal. Efficient. Nothing can and will go wrong. Echo chamber this world's material. Insulated from this what's going on.
The self sufficient get a wake up call. It's not love, it's a trigger for us all.
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.
To contact for availability and Purchasing – UK only shipping – visit: https://mollyovenden.com/contact/Facebook | Instagram – @mollyovendencreativity For Blog About Artwork, visit:
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
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.
GPH27
In the Noise, You Anchor Me
The lights strobe trying
to outshout my heartbeat,
all neon teeth and clatter,
a carousel of colour too fast
for the me that wants quiet.
Everything is too much
tinny music looping,
the plush toys staring
with stitched-on joy,
coins skittering over metal
like they’re trying to escape too.
And still
we feed the machine
our tiny copper offerings.
Tuppences sliding
into the bright, hungry mouth.
Because that’s what you do,
you play along
even when your chest feels tight.
But then your hand finds mine,
warm, certain,
a small gravity in the carnival glare,
and suddenly the world stops tilting.
I laugh.
Not because the moment is light,
but because you make it bearable,
because in the crush
of noise and colour
you steady me
without asking for anything in return.
And for a breath,
the arcade softens,
and I remember
I’m not trying to escape the world,
just trying to stay in it
with you.
Jen Thorne
Start them Young (GPH27)
Come in, and taste a new addiction. Each machine will let you win Just once, to start your new affliction Dopamine will draw you in!
Luke Meyers
Jane Sharp
WHEN THE PATHS ARE STRAIGHT AND FLAT (MO27)
Our hips and knees do not announce themselves. And we can walk for miles.
When the water is calm and warm we are buoyed and bouncy.
Give us enough of these simple days to talk and laugh in.
Let us hold all the memories of floating and freedom so lightness can be our balance.
Sue Finch
MO 27
The raging sea
Shadowed by night in deepest indigo blues sea rages against the rocks, spitting salt spray cursing the land in spite, ruing the day.
Hatred boiling, battering waves beat a tattoo syncopated roiling roll, a noise ridden malaise. Shadowed by night in deepest indigo blues sea rages against the rocks, spitting salt spray
Against cliffs, the auspices of a lord of misrule tiding the tide into torrents of terrible play the siege of the land as the water holds sway. Shadowed by night in deepest indigo blues sea rages against the rocks, spitting salt spray cursing the land in spite, ruing the day.
into the market when life's big change sucked. Not on our watch. Literally never happened. Fake news. Inside the arcade. Lucked out Carousel one arm bandit clever.
Their permission to live and exist tied to performing urge to rewatch the film. Use the change machine to get more tied into the default the house always wins.
Guardrails have been removed. Prepare. Survive nuclear winter of misinformation. What spin will win? Whose world shares fall and rise? He said Trust their pattern recognition.
I knew we could never be together. There are two ground invasions to suffer.
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.
To contact for availability and Purchasing – UK only shipping – visit: https://mollyovenden.com/contact/Facebook | Instagram – @mollyovendencreativity For Blog About Artwork, visit:
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
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 sky blushes, but softly, as though colour has grown shy. Lavender fades into ash, rose into a muted sigh.
The sea moves without sparkle, a hush instead of a hymn. Waves fold themselves inward, their brilliance worn thin.
The pier stands like a memory of something once adored its lights dim lantern echoes of a glow the world ignored.
Two figures walk the shoreline, their shadows long and low, searching for the splendour the world forgot to show.
And yet, in all this quiet, a gentler truth appears: even muted beauty lingers for the ones who choose to hear.
Jen Thorne
Could Ever Art
(GPH26, MO26)
Could ever art match that exquisite gleam As crimson sun descends beyond the sea? Could oil ever paint those shades of dream, Or cameras catch those seeds of fantasy?
Could ever music find that joyful tone That songbirds weave between the eaves of trees, In chorus, or as soloist alone They mock us with their perfect melodies.
It seems, though man has strived through history To match the wonder of creation’s art No substitute exists for Earth’s beauty, No way to copy what we let depart.
So if we wait, and watch the world depart, With inspiration gone, could ever art?
Luke Meyers
OUT OF THE FIRE (MO26)
Tiger-orange flames, tinged with soot, rise.
The colours of spring fleck and dance as I watch.
And later, after the heat, burnt words on brown-black paper.
Everything you said charred and flaking. Just fragile embers and ash now.
Sue Finch
GHP 26 Evening
Let us walk on sand Beside the light What do we have?
The sand, the water unshaken The rhythm of walking And in 12 hours the sun in our faces Now. Long shadows walk before us Over the sand.
Dave Garbutt
GPH 26 – evening
Evening stroll on the beach
A simple stroll along the silent sands
bathed in the weakened evening light
waves lapping as we’re hand in hand
looking to the horizon for a certain sight.
The setting sun bathing tides in bronze
rippling towards the aching salty shore
drawn into a caress which goes on and on
evening cold abandoned, our warmth implores.
Foam touches feet sending us scurrying
back along the golden beach towards home,
we laugh loud, wet in whimsical hurrying
realising that in our world we are not alone.
Back towards our romantic tryst
Hearts bathed in sweet amorous mists.
Dave Ashley
They think they've found a second Sphinx, scanning. It is evening in Cleethorpes. You don't have to excavate your whole historying. So he bought the chuch , your own scattergraph
as a voice in his inner council. Slap of the unseen sea on the darkened beach. Pick the problem that bothers you most. That fellow is used to doing things in reach.
Inhale seaweed fragrance. We were feral. It was glorious. Balance all of it. You need to know this if you want to full lean into delusion. The way to hit
was born because of a purpose. Product into the market when life's big change sucked.
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.
To contact for availability and Purchasing – UK only shipping – visit: https://mollyovenden.com/contact/Facebook | Instagram – @mollyovendencreativity For Blog About Artwork, visit:
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
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 The 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.
Surely everyone can feel how my soul sings when I am walking by the sea with you.
Us on solid ground flanked by the vastness and a horizon that promises forever.
Sharp colours, clean air. You.
I am completely in love.
Sue Finch
Fhp 25
Cyclops love
You may only have one eye but that is enough for me it cuts down on spectacle costs you only need one lens to see.
And if people bawl and say “why love a Cyclops, just why?” I’ll regale your many good points like how you make a great lamb pie.
Polyphemus, you’re a canny catch keep me warm in your golden fleece you are misjudged and quite lovely and a real man underneath!!
Dave Ashley
MO25
I Should Have Been a Surfer
When I was a kid, I saw a show:
seals juggling beach balls,
a parrot on a skateboard.
A small, forgettable memory
or so I thought.
Lately, I find myself back there,
sitting on that black chipboard bench,
wondering if I should have been a surfer.
It’s a stretch, I know.
But hear me out.
A seal and a parrot have no business
balancing with plastic toys,
yet there they were
earning their fish and seed
in ways that made no sense
to the wild that shaped them.
And now I sit
in a damp tin silo
dressed up as an Aztec temple,
thinking about the forty years since,
and what might have happened
had I stepped beyond
my own natural habitat.
Jen Thorne
Mick Jenkinson
FHP25
jazzz
rhythmic harmonies calls and responses
it gives you freedom a talisman to hold
an unknown beginning passing down wisdom
the lyrics of the blues emotions beliefs blended
together drums of communication adapted interpreted
lucky charms roots herbs violins and banjos
the age of recorded blues the music began to spread
speak truth play anything a starting point listening to
Check this out if nothing works. War is won. Cheap drones to stop smart aircraft carriers. "I need to confess something, that's hamstrung me for years." she said " Remove barriers"
This retreat is not a retreat. No win abandonment, a posture adjustment, strategic relocation, business spin, precautionary redeployment.
It is a speedboat as jet water bike. It is surrender as clear victory. It is we are the best in the world hiked when it is body-bags and wordery.
Here's the part that nobody saw coming. They think they've found a second Sphinx, scanning.
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.
To contact for availability and Purchasing – UK only shipping – visit: https://mollyovenden.com/contact/Facebook | Instagram – @mollyovendencreativity For Blog About Artwork, visit:
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
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.
Ancient races lie buried in time, beneath a bucolic calm.
Docile cattle graze, soft-mouthed and unknowing, among the remnants of bloodied ground above temples and statues, standing dark, silent, their eyes emptied into chasms no hand has traced.
Ghosts keep their vigil, watching as time unthreads the world.
Nature loosens the seams, reveals what was hidden, and writes again what they once made.
Jen Thorne
EVIDENCE OF MY SOLIDITY
The sun stencils my shadow black.
But I am difficult to touch, featureless, flat.
As the earth moves, and the days are marked, the shape of me shifts.
I am squat, I am alien tall.
On cloudy days I fade in and out.
Sue Finch
MO 24
Parting the curtain.
Inside the world is defined
a definition of room subsumed by darkness as I lounge on the bed, unmade. A landscape of haphazard sheets and disparaging duvet.
Motes of light invade through the curtain crack, illuminating dust particles that swirl and eddy on the breeze. Outside the world is undefined chaos of light and noise, of people, of cars, of life.
Time to part the curtain, look beyond the veil, time to breathe civility again.
Sharp gulls flock dust flies at your brusque shushing. Lifted up to stroke hooved beast's big skull, bony back, coarse hair, tiny hands grasping as the donkeys are led by owner's pull
down the beach. I wobble atop, steadied by dad more bird than reptile truth is sorely uncomfortable for both camps proceed shifting my bottom cheek to cheek poorly.
The body keeps processing what the brain refuses to face in this centuries asymmetrical war. Maximize pain with minimal cost. Cause more injuries.
Sharpen your axe. A blunt one is no fun. Check this out if nothing works. War is won.
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.
To contact for availability and Purchasing – UK only shipping – visit: https://mollyovenden.com/contact/Facebook | Instagram – @mollyovendencreativity For Blog About Artwork, visit:
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
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.
FHP23
Don’t
put me on a pedestal
to be worshipped from below.
I am afraid of the fall,
that in your supplication
you will not catch me.
Fill my mind
with colours,
with joy unbound.
Still,
I cannot contain
your expectations
within the confines
of this mind.
Love me.
I cannot feel.
Jen Thorne
Mike Jenkinson
WHAT CERTAINTY IS THERE? (MO23)
When the stepping stones stop and the rope bridge is frail and the paths are no longer marked.
What certainty is there?
When the road is too long and your body’s too tired and meanders obscure the view.
What certainty is there?
When your focus is gone and your mind is so full and all the colour seems hidden by cloud.
What certainty is there?
There’s one more step. There’s a brand-new dawn. And the birds will sing in the day.
Sue Finch
GPH 23 – seagulls
Seagulls
Swooping, sailing over the sands
Erstwhile masters of the sea calling out,
Always searching for herring or food
Gluttonous? Not really
Ubiquitous over fishing drives them on
Looking for scraps, dive bombing for chips
Leaving quickly with their prize
Shouts echo in their wake
Dave Ashley
Tiny Tardigrades will outlast us all. No such thing as a seagull. Herring gulls, Lesser black-backed gulls, have fish and chip gall to hover and steal from your hands the full
chip or piece of fish. Predatory birds. Box fresh. Geography is destiny. Embrace the medium of pastel dabs for their immediacy and feisty
brilliance running between all the brushed trenches identifying bodies and coins young people cant afford pushed price for decimated amenities.
The same congestion every morning. Sharp gulls flock dust flies at your brusque shushing.
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.
To contact for availability and Purchasing – UK only shipping – visit: https://mollyovenden.com/contact/Facebook | Instagram – @mollyovendencreativity For Blog About Artwork, visit:
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
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.
Stretching through the tempest of my mind, hoping for answers to questions I’ve not yet learned to find.
I claw my way through the tangled thicket of cognition, longing for silence, for stillness, for remission.
Am I the storm, or the traveller within? I long for quiet, yet fear I am the din.
I search for meaning, for shape within the murk. And maybe, in time, I'll find the answers, and fade away.
Jen Thorne
FHP 22 Wolf walking
I paint these trees to woods how they should be watch as I wash off the blood the humans covered them with— The cosmic painters are gone I green the trees for hamster, deer and wolverine.
Dave Garbutt
FPH 22
Lofty pedestal
I put you on a lofty pedestal it seemed the rightful place to be you always love me naturally.
Even when things get personal, and I may be silly to some degree. I put you on a lofty pedestal it seemed the rightful place to be.
Your kisses always, I mean always excel! And your sharp wit and repartee you’re fantastic, that’s a guarantee. I put you on a lofty pedestal it seemed the rightful place to be you always love me naturally.
Dave Ashley
WHEN YOU DRAW CIRCLES WITH YOUR LEFT HAND (MO22)
You are a child again making your mark.
You laugh as those shapes dance.
If you wanted a perfect circle you could reach for a lid, a coin, a cup.
But right now there is no need for templates. You are free and smiling, drawing circles with your left hand, gazing at your work in wonder.
Sue Finch
GPH 22 Beach
Our devil has receded with the waves beyond spinners, biscuits, snow-sand between toes, the wheel & spiral— and we stay to enjoy the sun a mild warmth perfect for castle building writing our names in wet sand as good as eternal.
Dave Garbutt
GPH22, MO22
Wattle
Many years have passed; the woodlands have cleared, leaving sand dunes, lagoons, saltmarsh piers.
Havens for curlew, sanderling, plover, dunlin, redshank, duck, and seagrass appear.
On the muddy flats, the fast-moving tide rushes in carrying riches left behind.
The tides rearrange sediments, rivers, grinding salt marshes, churning up breakers.
what difference does it make
disconnects you from your natural flow.
Werewolf Time chases Holidaymakers.
Moments become memories pricing how
two realities at the same time stir
thoughts where there's no precise definition.
"umcultured savage" is a conquerors
phrase as is "barbaric." Lockdown ration
oil on way. Rich war makes the poor poorer.
"isms" are not weather conditions passing
through history. Spade packs bucket taps out
castles in recall before forgetting
washes it away in incremental bouts.
Sponge like fungus inside material.
Tiny Tardigrades will outlast us all.
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.
To contact for availability and Purchasing – UK only shipping – visit: https://mollyovenden.com/contact/Facebook | Instagram – @mollyovendencreativity For Blog About Artwork, visit:
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
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 