A Creative Poetry Challenge with Artworks by Sara Elizabeth Bell and Robert Frede Kenter.  Azure autumnal graces, in sacred symbolsSteadfast Trinity SEB 1  

Ekprastic Poetry Challenge~ 2024-In Collaboration with Mr Paul Brooks of Wombwell Rainbows-Day-1

April 2024Ekphrastic Challenge, Day 2

into the path

April 2024, Ekphrastic Challenge, Day 1

Bent Cypress (KPG1)

Karen Pierce Gonzalez

Sara Elizabeth Bell (SEB1)

RFK1 Robert Frede Kenter

In the candlelight

I drink my sad alcohol

As life drips away

 

Emma Datson (RFK1)

Susan Richardson

KPG1


Cypress tree of life

Holy, the pursuit of art

Honour the artist




SEB1

Water colour art

Nature refracted colours

Motherly vision

Matt Guntrip

Vision in Blue (Inspired by “Bent Cypress,” Karen Pierce Gonzalez (KPG1)

I dream these colors, an explosion of stars
casting their light, cobalt to cyan,
on the resting winged horse, till he is hued
the twilight-blue of winter snow.

This tasted blue,
shimmering on my lips, light
of dead stars living, swallowed aqua mint.
Shadows of indigo slant,
world-shifting, wings flicker–
clutching a seafoam mane, I fly.

I saw a winged horse in Karen’s bent cypress.

Merril D Smith

Kevin MacAlan response to KPG1

 

KPG1 Bent Cypress ~~~ A Haiku

So like God Orcus
covered with waxy bloom
seems a succubus  

Anjum Wasim Dar

Mick Jenkinson (in response to RFK1)

SEB1 – Autumnal Equinox by Donna Faulkner 

KPG1 by Donna Faulkner 

RFK1 by Donna Faulkner

Tim Fellows (All images)

F WORD WARNING 

Ivor Daniel

KPG1

Love in Times of Unwanted Change

We have lost our beautiful words for rot, decay, inevitable damage. Lost the intimate language needed for love in times of unwanted change. Don’t call this decline. Don’t call it crippling. I’m in an entangled dance with time and gravity. Think of this as plié, cambré, À terre. Think of this as moment’s in nature’s inescapable ballet.

RFK1

The Rules

I learnt ritual through family osmosis. Mother, grandmother, aunts. The seeping in of stories about how to deal with spirits who spurned silence. Even the dead must have manners. Even the dead must learn to respect the power of siren flame, capturing glass. Living or passed, it is the rules you are never directly taught that become tattooed upon your bones. Do not run on the polished floor. Don’t let the kitchen door slam. And you my ghosts, speak when you are spoken too.

SEB1

Tulled

We have a word where I come from – tulled. It means to stand upon a threshold, held between this and that, now and then. Caught between worlds. Caught between lovers. People talk of those weeks caught between seasons as: ‘tulled times’. I call them beloved. Adore the thrill of holding summer’s ebbing green tide to my back as autumn’s goldening rush comes towards me. Rich are the feral magics in these calendar blurrings.

 

David Southwell

Nettles

I

I feed on your ash and bones, cattle-pens,
I keep secrets in my jagged tooth leaves,
bonfire sites, refuse dumps, churchyards, middens.
Making my growth pattern a wound that heals.

I’m an old man who bends. Celebrate my
coarseness, scratchiness, sharp, prickly edges.
I am healing green. Hear your every
thought. I turn yellow as sky fetches

no water. Learn the wisdom and laughter.
Replenished back to green, a balanced dream
when tapered as a droplet of water,
flooded I bent bloated in the extreme.

Beside graves I flit between too much and too
little, fat with thirst, or thin with rain or dew.

II

Before I was what you call a cypress
I was what you call Magnolia.
My delicate leaves turned yellow and less
wellness from the soil, the less hardier

I became. My fragrance fell at slightest
frost or rainfall. It was learning that life
goes on. You think these false and wildest
imaginings how you become new life.

How your dreams are often of somewhere else.
How can a nettle dream? Utter nonsense.
I live through the leaves of others, the stealth
of impulses underground, the sense

that their is more life above when rounded
grafted to life below, undergrounded.

Paul Brookes (All images)

Bios and Links

Karen Pierce Gonzalez

is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in numerous print and online publications, radio shows, and podcasts. Her chapbooks include Coyote in the Basket of My Ribs (Kelsay Books), True North and Sightings from a Star Wheel (Origami Poems Project), and forthcoming Down River with Li Po (Black Cat Poetry Press). Writing credits also include several short plays staged through Fringe Festival of Marin (USA).

With degrees in creative writing, anthropological linguistics, and folklore, she is also a former journalist and folklore columnist who now hosts a quarterly ‘Get Ekphrastic with Folk Art’ blogzine on FolkHeart Press. Other current projects include a series of videos based upon 1) original folktales/legends and 2) imagined prequels/sequels to fables and fairy tales.

Her visual artistry focuses primarily upon assemblage art based upon elements found in nature (tree bark, bird nests, etc.). To date, 50+ of her art pieces, including six cover images, have been or are scheduled to be published in a range of literary journals/magazines.

And she gets to do all that in the verdant rural landscape of San Francisco’s North Bay.

Links: linktr.ee/KPGFolkHeart

Sara Elizabeth Bell

Artist Statement:
Sara Bell has always drawn. As a child, her mother would say, “Go to your room and DRAW something!” when Sara needed a break. She later earned her BFA from the Maryland Institute, College of Art, moved to Northern California, and had 2 children.
Now, she lives in Western North Carolina and embodies the John Muir quote, “And into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul.” She ventures off into the mountains and off the beaten path to find beautiful, peaceful places to sit and draw. This provides her with respite from her main task of caring for her autistic son. Then she can return to the hustle and bustle of her world with a clearer mind and peaceful soul. She also develops and completes the drawings using water to lift the inks and watercolor techniques to add color. Once complete, her images capture the beauty and peace of being in the woods.

Most recently Sara has been working in a variety of water based mediums. Her primary modality is to go out into the woods, find a magical place that calls to be drawn and sketch it using water based ink pens. Then she returns to the studio and uses layers of water colors and other inks to fully develop the image capturing the peace and beauty of the natural world.

At other times, Sara returns to the discipline of detailed watercolor painting, drawing and intaglio printmaking to develop her images further. Allowing her to explore deeper themes inspired by her exploration of Brene Brown’s Atlas of the Heart and the therapeutic journey she has been on with her ausome son and her neurotypical daughter.

Sara says: “ I hope you can look at my images and find yourself reminded of being in the wild places and through that, connect with the natural peace being in the presence of trees can provide.”

Robert Frede Kenter

is a multiple-pushcart-nominated poet, writer, visual artist and the publisher/EIC of Ice Floe Press (www.icefloepress.net) whose work explores relationships between illness, disability, family & social histories, climate change, dystopia, myths, dreams, hallucinations and the sacred. Robert’s drawings & paintings are collected internationally, & Robert is currently working on a number of upcoming collaborations and VISPO projects exploring hybridity, colour fields, collage, and reader-response links between abstraction and modes of representation. Robert is a participant in the ongoing Wombwell Rainbow Forms-Challenge project and was a writer in the 2023 WR National Poetry Month project. Recently work in: Storms Journal, Otoliths, Fevers Of the Mind , Acropolis Journal, Street Cake Magazine, Watch Your Head, and many other venues, both in-print and online. In anthologies recently incl.: Recalibrating the Pain Scale (Olney Books, 2023), Seeing in Tongues (Steel Incisors, 2023), Glisk and Glimmer (Sidhe Press, 2023), Deep Time 1 (Black Bough, 2021). Books: EDEN/vispo (2021); Audacity of Form (Ice Floe Press, 2019). Robert lives with ME/CFS, is sometimes down but never out of the game. Twitter: @frede_kenter. IG: r.f.k.vispocityshuffle, icefloe22.

Margaret Royall

has six poetry books. She is published online and in print. Laurel prize nominated 2021 for ‘Where Flora Sings’. Forthcoming in 2024 new collection ‘Toccata and Fugue’ (Hedgehog Press), plus chapbooks from Dreich and Impspired

Website: Margaretroyall.com,  X @RoyallMargaret, Instagram @meggiepoet

Frank Colley,  

Emily May,  

David Southwell, 

Susan Richardson,  

Mick Jenkinson,  

Mick is a poet, songwriter, musician, and freelance arts practitioner from Doncaster. He runs Well Spoken, a monthly poetry evening at Doncaster Brewery, and delivers songwriting and poetry workshops for community arts projects. His second poetry pamphlet, When the Waters Rise, was published by Calder Valley Poetry in 2019, and his latest album The Wheel Keeps on Turning was released in December 2023. More info at www.mickjenkinson.co.uk

Donna Faulkner

née Miller spent her childhood between countries. One foot bare and carefree  in New Zealand, the other tiptoeing the coal dust and camaraderie of working class England. 

Donna lives in Rangiora, New Zealand but likes to roam .She’s published in erbacce, Havik, Fieldstone Review, New Myths, Bacopa Literary Review and others. Her chapbook ‘The Oracle Of Birds : stories for the fireside’ was recently published by Written Tales. 

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

Matt Guntrip, 

is a guitarist, songwriter and indie musician in the UK, who has published four albums, and two singles – Penthesilea and Democracy – via CD Baby, available on most channels. The craft of writing lyrics interests him. Through creative writing,  he is working to improve and explore the human experience, nature, time, love, loss, rejection, hope and injustice, and thus write better songs.

Matt has had two pieces published on thewombwellrainbow.com and a poem included in ‘Starman Oddity: Poetry and Art inspired by David Bowie’, a book published via Fevers of the Mind (David L O’Nan).

Links

Website: https://mattguntrip.com

iTunes: Matt Guntrip https://apple.co/36Ffcib

YouTube Album Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0GRM0Sd7sGv4wY91V69kFg

YouTube acoustic originals: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjX-H8leVEJHwDr0cz7f8Mg

YouTube covers: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_0ZZIZ9aepJH0WkVblDVHg

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2vTe1Imrg5NeXf1DyKSGR0?si=yFXdeqFdTUCY_4NhzSW5nQ

Soundcloud Matt Guntrip 7-9: https://soundcloud.com/matt-guntrip-7-9

Other:

Twitter:@MG_7_9

Instagram: matt_guntrip_music

Susan Richardson,

is the author of “Things My Mother Left Behind”, from Baxter House Editions, and “Tiger Lily” an Ekphrastic Collaboration with artist Jane Cornwell, published by JC Studio Press. Her poetry has appeared in The Storms,Crannog, Door is Ajar, California Quarterly, The Opiate Magazine, and Rust+Moth, among others. She also writes the blog, Stories from the Edge of Blindness, and hosts the podcast, A Thousand Shades of Green. You can find out more about Susan on her website,

Gaynor Kane,  

Tim Fellows,  

is a writer from Chesterfield. His first poetry pamphlet, Heritage, was published in 2019 by Glass Head Press. He publishes on timfellowspoetry.substack.com edits The Fig Tree webzine on figtreepoetry.substack.com

Anjum Wasim Dar,  

migrant Pakistani of Kashmiri origin, Masters in English Literature & American Studies, Masters in History, Punjab University, awarded a scholarship for  distinction in English Language, holds a  Post Graduate Diploma in TEFL, AIOU and a Certificate of Proficiency in English from Cambridge University UK.
An International Award Winner Poet of Merit, Bronze Medal, ISP USA-2000, Short Story Writer, Author of a Novel for Young Adults, “The Adventures of the Multi Colored Lead People” (Unpublished)
Educational Manager, former Head of English Department & Professor of English Literature at Pakistan Air Force AIR University Islamabad.
Digital Artist with Focus on Ekphrastic Poetry.  Her latest  contribution – 30 Art work pieces for Upcoming Ekphrastic Poetry Event by Mr Paul Brookes of  www.wombwellrainbows.com UK for April 2022 Challenge.
Poetry Blog : http://poeticoceans.wordpress.com
Short Story Blog : http://storiesmiracles.wordpress.com

Kevin MacAlan,  

Kevin MacAlan’s home is in rural Co Waterford. He has an MA in Creative Writing, and has contributed art, poetry and fiction to many journals, including The Waxed Lemon, An Áitiúil, Howl, Recesses, Bindweed, Purple Unicorn Media, Datura, The Fish Barrel Review, and The Martello. 

 

Emma Datson,  

is a 40ish medically interesting, emerging Australian poet and writer, who is beginning to use her voice. You can find more of her writing on her Vocal page and on Twitter. Emma’s superpower is her vocabulary.

Ivor Daniel,  

lives in Gloucestershire, UK. His poems have appeared in @litscihub,Steel Jackdaw, iamb, Fevers of the Mind, Roi Fainéant, Ice Floe Press, The Dawntreader, After…, Alien Buddha, @TopTweetTuesday, Wombwell Rainbow, Black Nore Review, Lit.202, Sidhe Press, Black Bough Poem

Twitter:  @IvorDaniel   Instagram: ivor.daniel.165   Bluesky: @ivordaniel.bsky.social

Francis Powell,  

Diane Lowman,  

Michelle Barnett

Merril D Smith

lives in southern New Jersey. Her poetry has appeared in publications, including Black Bough Poetry, Acropolis, The Storms, and Sidhe Press. Her full-length collection, River Ghosts (Nightingale & Sparrow Press) was a Black Bough Press featured book.
Twitter/X: @merril_mds
Instagram: mdsmithnj
Blog: merrildsmith.org

 

SEB2 KPG2 RFK2 Robert Frede Kenter Tim Fellows

Emma Datson

Matt Guntrip Merril D. Smith Donna Faulkner (KPG2) Donna Faulkner (SEB2) Paul Brookes Bios And Links Karen Pierce Gonzalez is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in numerous print and online publications, radio shows, and podcasts. Her chapbooks include Coyote in the Basket of My Ribs (Kelsay Books), True North and Sightings from a Star Wheel (Origami Poems Project), and forthcoming Down River with Li Po (Black Cat Poetry Press). Writing credits also include several short plays staged through Fringe Festival of Marin (USA). With degrees in creative writing, anthropological linguistics, and folklore, she is also a former journalist and folklore columnist who now hosts a quarterly ‘Get Ekphrastic with Folk Art’ blogzine on FolkHeart Press. Other current projects include a series of videos based upon 1) original folktales/legends and 2) imagined prequels/sequels to fables and fairy tales. Her visual artistry focuses primarily upon assemblage art based upon elements found in nature (tree bark, bird nests, etc.). To date, 50+ of her art pieces, including six cover images, have been or are scheduled to be published in a range of literary journals/magazines. And she gets to do all that in the verdant rural landscape of San Francisco’s North Bay. Links: linktr.ee/KPGFolkHeart Sara Elizabeth Bell Artist Statement: Sara Bell has always drawn. As a child, her mother would say, “Go to your room and DRAW something!” when Sara needed a break. She later earned her BFA from the Maryland Institute, College of Art, moved to Northern California, and had 2 children. Now, she lives in Western North Carolina and embodies the John Muir quote, “And into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul.” She ventures off into the mountains and off the beaten path to find beautiful, peaceful places to sit and draw. This provides her with respite from her main task of caring for her autistic son. Then she can return to the hustle and bustle of her world with a clearer mind and peaceful soul. She also develops and completes the drawings using water to lift the inks and watercolor techniques to add color. Once complete, her images capture the beauty and peace of being in the woods Most recently Sara has been working in a variety of water based mediums. Her primary modality is to go out into the woods, find a magical place that calls to be drawn and sketch it using water based ink pens. Then she returns to the studio and uses layers of water colors and other inks to fully develop the image capturing the peace and beauty of the natural world. At other times, Sara returns to the discipline of detailed watercolor painting, drawing and intaglio printmaking to develop her images further. Allowing her to explore deeper themes inspired by her exploration of Brene Brown’s Atlas of the Heart and the therapeutic journey she has been on with her awesome son and her neurotypical daughter. Sara says: “ I hope you can look at my images and find yourself reminded of being in the wild places and through that, connect with the natural peace being in the presence of trees can provide.” Robert Frede Kenter is a multiple-pushcart-nominated poet, writer, visual artist and the publisher/EIC of Ice Floe Press (www.icefloepress.net) whose work explores relationships between illness, disability, family & social histories, climate change, dystopia, myths, dreams, hallucinations and the sacred. Robert’s drawings & paintings are collected internationally, & Robert is currently working on a number of upcoming collaborations and VISPO projects exploring hybridity, colour fields, collage, and reader-response links between abstraction and modes of representation. Robert is a participant in the ongoing Wombwell Rainbow Forms-Challenge project and was a writer in the 2023 WR National Poetry Month project. Recently work in: Storms Journal, Otoliths, Fevers Of the Mind , Acropolis Journal, Street Cake Magazine, Watch Your Head, and many other venues, both in-print and online. In anthologies recently incl.: Recalibrating the Pain Scale (Olney Books, 2023), Seeing in Tongues (Steel Incisors, 2023), Glisk and Glimmer (Sidhe Press, 2023), Deep Time 1 (Black Bough, 2021). Books: EDEN/vispo (2021); Audacity of Form (Ice Floe Press, 2019). Robert lives with ME/CFS, is sometimes down but never out of the game. Twitter: @frede_kenter. IG: r.f.k.vispocityshuffle, icefloe22. Margaret Royall has six poetry books. She is published online and in print. Laurel prize nominated 2021 for ‘Where Flora Sings’. Forthcoming in 2024 new collection ‘Toccata and Fugue’ (Hedgehog Press), plus chapbooks from Dreich and Impspired Website: Margaretroyall.com,  X @RoyallMargaret, Instagram @meggiepoet Frank Colley, Emily May, David Southwell, Susan Richardson, Mick Jenkinson, Mick is a poet, songwriter, musician, and freelance arts practitioner from Doncaster. He runs Well Spoken, a monthly poetry evening at Doncaster Brewery, and delivers songwriting and poetry workshops for community arts projects. His second poetry pamphlet, When the Waters Rise, was published by Calder Valley Poetry in 2019, and his latest album The Wheel Keeps on Turning was released in December 2023. More info at www.mickjenkinson.co.uk Donna Faulkner née Miller spent her childhood between countries. One foot bare and carefree  in New Zealand, the other tiptoeing the coal dust and camaraderie of working class England. Donna lives in Rangiora, New Zealand but likes to roam . She’s published in erbacce, Havik, Fieldstone Review, New Myths, Bacopa Literary Review and others. Her chapbook ‘The Oracle Of Birds : stories for the fireside’ was recently published by Written Tales. Instagram @lady_lilith_poet/ Twitter @nee_miller. https://linktr.ee/donnafaulkner Matt Guntrip, is a guitarist, songwriter and indie musician in the UK, who has published four albums, and two singles – Penthesilea and Democracy – via CD Baby, available on most channels. The craft of writing lyrics interests him. Through creative writing,  he is working to improve and explore the human experience, nature, time, love, loss, rejection, hope and injustice, and thus write better songs. Matt has had two pieces published on thewombwellrainbow.com and a poem included in ‘Starman Oddity: Poetry and Art inspired by David Bowie’, a book published via Fevers of the Mind (David L O’Nan). Links Website: https://mattguntrip.com iTunes: Matt Guntrip https://apple.co/36Ffcib YouTube Album Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0GRM0Sd7sGv4wY91V69kFg YouTube acoustic originals: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjX-H8leVEJHwDr0cz7f8Mg YouTube covers: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_0ZZIZ9aepJH0WkVblDVHg Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2vTe1Imrg5NeXf1DyKSGR0?si=yFXdeqFdTUCY_4NhzSW5nQ Soundcloud Matt Guntrip 7-9: https://soundcloud.com/matt-guntrip-7-9 Other: Twitter:@MG_7_9 Instagram: matt_guntrip_music Susan Richardson is the author of “Things My Mother Left Behind”, from Baxter House Editions, and “Tiger Lily” an Ekphrastic Collaboration with artist Jane Cornwell, published by JC Studio Press. Her poetry has appeared in The Storms,Crannog, Door is Ajar, California Quarterly, The Opiate Magazine, and Rust+Moth, among others. She also writes the blog, Stories from the Edge of Blindness, and hosts the podcast, A Thousand Shades of Green. You can find out more about Susan on her website, Gaynor Kane, Tim Fellows, is a writer from Chesterfield. His first poetry pamphlet, Heritage, was published in 2019 by Glass Head Press. He publishes on timfellowspoetry.substack.com edits The Fig Tree webzine on figtreepoetry.substack.com Anjum Wasim Dar, migrant Pakistani of Kashmiri origin, Masters in English Literature & American Studies, Masters in History, Punjab University, awarded a scholarship for  distinction in English Language, holds a  Post Graduate Diploma in TEFL, AIOU and a Certificate of Proficiency in English from Cambridge University UK. An International Award Winner Poet of Merit, Bronze Medal, ISP USA-2000, Short Story Writer, Author of a Novel for Young Adults, “The Adventures of the Multi Colored Lead People” (Unpublished) Educational Manager, former Head of English Department & Professor of English Literature at Pakistan Air Force AIR University Islamabad. Digital Artist with Focus on Ekphrastic Poetry.  Her latest  contribution – 30 Art work pieces for Upcoming Ekphrastic Poetry Event by Mr Paul Brookes of  www.wombwellrainbows.com UK for April 2022 Challenge. Poetry Blog : http://poeticoceans.wordpress.com Short Story Blog : http://storiesmiracles.wordpress.com Kevin MacAlan,

Kevin MacAlan’s home is in rural Co Waterford. He has an MA in Creative Writing, and has contributed art, poetry and fiction to many journals, including The Waxed Lemon, An Áitiúil, Howl, Recesses, Bindweed, Purple Unicorn Media, Datura, The Fish Barrel Review, and The Martello. 

Emma Datson, is a 40ish medically interesting, emerging Australian poet and writer, who is beginning to use her voice. You can find more of her writing on her Vocal page and on Twitter. Emma’s superpower is her vocabulary. Ivor Daniel, lives in Gloucestershire, UK. His poems have appeared in @litscihub,Steel Jackdaw, iamb, Fevers of the Mind, Roi Fainéant, Ice Floe Press, The Dawntreader, After…, Alien Buddha, @TopTweetTuesday, Wombwell Rainbow, Black Nore Review, Lit.202, Sidhe Press, Black Bough Poem. Twitter:  @IvorDaniel   Instagram: ivor.daniel.165   Bluesky: @ivordaniel.bsky.social Francis Powell, Diane Lowman, Michelle Barnett

Merril D Smith

lives in southern New Jersey. Her poetry has appeared in publications, including Black Bough Poetry, Acropolis, The Storms, and Sidhe Press. Her full-length collection, River Ghosts (Nightingale & Sparrow Press) was a Black Bough Press featured book. Twitter/X: @merril_mds Instagram: mdsmithnj Blog: merrildsmith.org

The Ides 


Chris says, "Still,

beware. It is the Ides."


I cross-check in the net

about the zones of our time,

distance between our fences.

I tell him that the carrots, 

winter crop once, cross 

the threshold of heat, 

that a rusty weathervane

sways pointlessly on my roof.


March spreads its wings

and for a jiffy we realise it has been 

here, and as it flies a swirl of wind 

tussles our hairs.


Still, it is the Ides.

I lock the knives. 

My wife makes love with the key.

We make a large salad

no one eats.


We call Chris. The phone rings 

as if noise travels through the cables 


under the sea and those have chinks.

Kushal Poddar

Photo : Admiring The Vases by Paul Brookes

Passing

A time when stopping to admire something beautiful was not against the law or threatening another person’s or object’s rights, let alone their space to be unnoticed if desired. 

And still, we sneak peek, glance sideways when maybe we shouldn’t or maybe because we can’t control our impulse to drink in the sight of something pleasing.

Karen Pierce Gonzalez

A Women's Day Tale

I have forgotten to collect the ransom
from the house chores. I have failed
my promises. On the clothesline, all night,
wind amuses itself with the forest prints
on the twin dresses of the women in my life.
One day in the whole year I forget to congratulate
you for being women, to buy some roses.

You forgive me, say, "Let's watch." and so we do,
see the forest spread and sprawl, wind darken.
We cross the thin membrane of glass,
be in the scene, be the protagonists.
I have no eyes there. Two women lead me, and yet
I am the one they trust with the foods and the knives.
We sit around the fire you kindle and listen to the djinn
our daughter brings out ripping her dreams.

My fingers feel the shrapnel of the light.
You say, out of context, "You should shave so I may
recall our wedding day."
Our daughter feeds the djinn although a sign
prohibits this. Today she can do that, right?
We are in the dim, on the other side of the pane.

Kushal Poddar

As I do every year, I would like to point out that for the UN Women, in France and Québec, today is International Women's Rights Day. It's not a celebration of how wonderful women are, their successes, and an occasion to post flattering selfies. It's a reminder that the rights of one half of the world's population are not equal to those of the other half, that in many parts of the world, the few rights that women do have are not respected. Today is all about the struggle of women for the same respect and opportunities afforded to men, and to end the discrimination and violence directed against them uniquely because of their sex.

To be woman

 

is a heritage, lineage, bloodline,

indelibly engraved in the serpentine string

of DNA she wears as necklace,

 

to be a leafing branch of the World Tree,

sower of seeds, healer of woes, magician,

 

the first tide lapping the first shore,

casting up the first fish-lizard egg,

feathered and plumed to take to the sky,

 

the magical flow of blood, drawn up

by the cycle of the first moon.

 

As long ago as that, as mists of time,

she has been, a simple thing,

the first, the maker of worlds.

 

Jane Dougherty

Bios and Links

Jane Dougherty

Pushcart Prize nominee, Jane Dougherty’s poetry has appeared in publications including Gleam, Ogham Stone, Black Bough Poetry and The Storms Journal. Her short stories have been published in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Prairie Fire, Lucent Dreaming among others, and her first adult novel will be published in 2025 by Northodox Press. She lives in southwest France and has published three collections of poetry, thicker than water, birds and other feathers and night horses.

Corinna Board

teaches English as an additional language in Oxford. She grew up on a farm, and her writing is often inspired by the rural environment. She particularly enjoys exploring our connection to the more-than-human. Her work has appeared in various journals, and she was recently commended in the Verve Eco-poetry competition. Arboreal, her debut pamphlet, was published in January. Find her on Instagram

@parole_de_reveuse or

X/Twitter @CorinnaBoard.

Link to book:

https://www.blackcatpress.co.uk/product-page/arboreal

The Interview

Q:1. When and why did you start writing poetry?

I started writing poetry in my late teens, probably around the age of 17/18. At the time, it was a way of processing difficult emotions, and I never intended for anyone to read them.

Q:2. Who introduced you to poetry?

The way poetry is taught in schools is often criticised, but that was where I first learnt about poetry. I remember studying Phillip Larkin and, later on, Sylvia Plath. Her poems were a bit like locked boxes – I didn’t completely understand them, but I was intrigued and wanted to read more.

Q:3. How did you decide on the order of the poems in Arboreal?

It was a lengthy process! The final manuscript is very different to the one I originally put together in 2022. Poems have been swapped around, taken out, put back in, then taken out again! (Sometimes at the last minute… I have a very understanding publisher!) The final order of the poems came over time; l’d look for words or themes that linked particular poems. I put the ones about childhood and the family farm together, one poem about birds or death would interlock with another, etc.

Q:4. How aware are and were you of the dominating presence of older poets traditional and contemporary?

That’s an interesting question, and something I don’t really pay much attention to when I’m reading poetry – either I like it or I don’t! Perhaps the traditional poetry scene was more dominated by older male poets, but the contemporary poetry I read is written by poets of all ages, and I think that’s a good thing!

Q:5. What is your daily writing routine?

I wish I had one! I’ve tried getting up early to write before work, as I have a lot more creative energy in the morning, but that doesn’t really help… I just end up spending more time doing other stuff! A lot of my inspiration comes in little bursts when I’m walking or reading, so I’ll jot down snippets, or thoughts in a little notebook or on my phone notes app. I then tend to let them “cook” for a while in my mind before attempting to draft anything (I often draft poems at the weekend or whenever I have more time on my hands).

Q:6. Why the title, “Arboreal”?

Arboreal means ‘of or living in trees.’ I really love the word and chose it as a title quite early on in the process of putting the pamphlet together. I think it conveys a sense of symbiosis between trees and the humans and more-than-humans that live in and around them.

Q:7. How do the writers you read when you were young influence your work today?

Reading Sylvia Plath as a teen has definitely influenced the way I write today. I was fascinated by the darkness in her writing, and her work also taught me that it’s OK to not understand everything in a poem – that, in fact, it’s important to leave some things open to interpretation, ambiguous or unsaid so, as readers, we can find what we need within a poem’s lines.

Q:7.1. How do you think the “darkness” comes through in Arboreal?

There are quite a few references to death in Arboreal. As I get older, it’s something that preoccupies me more and more. Perhaps writing about it is a way of accepting that nothing’s permanent, which is also probably the biggest lesson we can learn from Nature.

Q:8. Who of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?


That’s a really difficult question haha. There are too many to pick just one! Pascale Petit, because her imagery is astounding, and I love the way she weaves the natural world into her poems. Jane Burn, because she has such a unique voice, and she writes brilliantly about the more-than-human; her recent pamphlet ‘A thousand Miles from the Sea’ is breathtaking. Jane Lovell, because she writes the kind of ecopoetry I wish I could write. Kathryn Bevis, Caroline Bird… I could go on and on and on! I enjoy reading poetry as much as I enjoy writing it.

Q:9. How do you want the white space to work on the pages in Arboreal?

It varies from one poem to another. A poem like ‘The Shed’ is very compact with little white space to reflect the heavy nature of the subject.  I enjoy playing with line breaks, and the space between couplets can be a useful tool for creating a sense of anticipation or surprise. In ‘Genesis’, the lines are arranged to look a bit like a sapling.

Q:10. What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”

I’m still learning myself! I’d say reading as much, if not more, than you write would be a good starting point. Also, write what you want to write, not what you think people want to read. Finally, don’t give up!

Q:11. What does mythology and folklore give to your poetry in Arboreal?

I’m a massive fan of Norse mythology, the poem ‘Embla’ was inspired directly by this. The forest is a highly symbolic place in folklore and fairytales – wolves, witches, the Green Man… all of these can be found lurking in the pages of Arboreal in some form or other.

Q:12. How do you cope with the irony that a book is made from a forest?

It might seem hypocritical to love trees so much, then bring out a pamphlet made from them…  I try to do as much as I can to give back what I take from the planet, and I also buy a lot of second-hand books, read ebooks or borrow from the local library. Loving books and trees in equal measures is a bit tricky!

Q:13. What did trees bring to your childhood?

I grew up on my grandparents’ farm and feel really lucky to have been surrounded by animals and nature throughout childhood. Trees were places to climb, hide or shelter. I’d often go on trips to the local woods with my Nan, always with a bag to pick up anything interesting: pinecones, feathers, acorns… it’s something I still do! One of my most prized treasures is a tiny jay feather found on the forest floor.

Q:14. With adulthood how do you see trees, differently?

I’ve learnt much more about what trees do for the planet and just how important they are. One book that taught me a lot was ‘The Treeline’ by Ben Rawlence. It’s a beautiful and heartbreaking read.

Q.15. Once they have read your book what do you want the reader to leave with?

I hope they get some enjoyment from reading the poems, that it makes them want to go outside for a walk or visit a local forest, perhaps even plant a tree!

Q:16. Tell me about the writing projects you have on at the moment.

I’m writing a lot about the rural environment where I grew up – the fields, meadows and wildlife. I’ve also been writing some poems about my father, who was totally absent from my life until he died. Not sure if those two themes can somehow be woven together, we’ll see!