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Brief candles
For the penultimate day of Paul Brookes’ April poetry challenge, inspired by Anjum Wasim Dar’s painting, Oxygen. I’ve just written and sent off the final poem for the challenge with a feeling of a job well done, but regret that it’s over too. Please go to Paul’s blog to read all the poems. No regrets there.
Day 29, Ekphrastic Challenge, My Poem,
For the penultimate day of the challenge:
Inspired by AWD, “Oxygen”
Oxygen
From the dark, soupy universe
light emerged, the afterglow of explosion
blue-shifted here
to our primeval oceans
where microbes gobbled oxygen
and cyanobacteria sent some into the air
through photosynthesis,
generating life.
And from there, flowers bloomed,
and then came fruit,
and us, and love, and art—
microscopic particles recycled, torn apart
in the process of (re)creating space and hearts.
I am once again participating in Paul Brookes’ April Ekphrastic Challenge. Each day, I will post my poem(s) here. You can see the art and read the other responses by going to Paul’s site here.
The artists are Gaynor Kane, John Phandal Law, and Anjum Wasim Dar. Thank you for your wonderful and inspiring art!
Day 29. My annual National Poetry Month 2022 ekphrastic challenge is a collaboration between artists Gaynor Kane, John Phandal Law, Anjum Wasim Dar, and writers, Angi Plant, Tim Fellows, Math Jones, Merril D. Smith, Jamie Woods, Lesley James, Lesley Curwen, Carrie Ann Golden, Peter A., Barbara Leonhard, Jane Dougherty, Jen Feroze, Vicky Allen, Simon Williams, Jona Roy, Beth Brooke, Caroline Johnstone, Lynne Jensen Lampe and myself. April 29th.
Day Twenty-Ninth
John Phandal Law
-Gaynor Kane – Surfer, Port Rush, County Antrim
-Anjum Wasim Dar – Oxygen
July Fourth, Just Us (AWD29)
We stretch on blankets at twilight,
scratchy wool against summer
skin. Shagbark hickory, sycamore,
mulberry, and oak shield us
from indigo sky and its froth
of stars. We munch almonds,
swig lemonade, wait for the city
fireworks to sequin the night.
—Lynne Jensen Lampe
Surfing
It was just him and the sea
and the cold sky watching;
the slow rise and fall,
further out, further out,
waiting, heart pumping,
the world shut out,
only the board and the waves,
holding on, certain yet uncertain,
balancing risk and reward.
-Tim Fellows
-Lesley Curwen
AWD29 – Oxygen
Beyond the tree line
as everything
begins to end
and my breath
less and less
Intakes,
it is a
painful moment of
irony that fills
thin air
Remembering that
plagues of the past
had heralded
hives of
artistic
creativity
How lucky then
our productive
pens and brushes
to be active
in a time of
plague and poverty
overcast by nothing less
than threat of
nuclear apocalypse –
is it any wonder we got so excited
And we were right to be –
survivors
who appreciate
artistic effort
are going to be
spoiled for choice
-Peter A.
I Am Breath
to AWD-29 Oxygen
I am breath, cloud of life,
streaming into each vein and pore,
feeding the heart, rooting it to the sky.
Clean and pure I enter
into your being, your heat.
Marvel in your temple.
Leave with your burdens.
Just as the tide. In the tight space
between each surge, my wisdom
is elusive.
-Barbara Leonhard
Menace (GK29)
Splash, splash
Watch out for
The shadow hidden
‘neath the metallic waves
Splash, splash
Red is the color of
The setting sun
The churning sea
Splash, splash
The abyss welcomes
You
-Carrie Ann Golden
-Vicky Allen (inspired by GK29)
29 JPL and AWD
(People are still under Azovstal works)
In some corner of an English field
the relics of a pit-head. The first glimpse of light
as you emerge from underground hurts most,
the first new air when you come up,
the best. When you come up: the deep-down sweat
of it, the smell of coal and struggle, a grinding cough,
the pride-shame of your work filth, piss stains on your boots,
dark phlegm on the back of a sleeve, and the first cigarette
to taint the cool air, to spoil the whiff of your own tarry stench.
And the silence of the surface : a crunch of boots, some jokes,
plans for the pub, a tip for a dead cert at the bookie,
and the game at the weekend.
The relief of it. To have come through intact and free
of loss. Another shift below ground done. Clock off. And walk
away.
In some corner of another land,
under the land, below the steelworks, beneath
the surface of the mangled world, breathe
your first breath, see
your first light and smell
relief.
-Lesley James
29. [Oxygen AWD29]
Everything is breathing.
Even the earth is throwing,
from its deep soil, roots
for the tasty air.
Even the sky is sliding
sylphy fingers across itself;
self-love is to be celebrated.
The trees, the grass, of course,
we could hear their sighs in the womb,
before we even took our own
ignition.
Blood breathing in
from the lungs breathing in
from our outsides breathing in
Everything.
-Math Jones
Oxygen (Inspired by AWD, “Oxygen”)
From the dark, soupy universe
light emerged, the afterglow of explosion
blue-shifted here
to our primeval oceans
where microbes gobbled oxygen
and cyanobacteria sent some into the air
through photosynthesis,
generating life.
And from there, flowers bloomed,
and then came fruit,
and us, and love, and art—
microscopic particles recycled, torn apart
in the process of (re)creating space and hearts.
-Merril D. Smith
Wetsuit
(after Surfer, Portrush, County Antrim GK29)
Inside the wetsuit a fire builds:
overcast greys and blue-collared waves
won’t dampen this glowing life-force.
Building-site sand sticks to his soles,
windchill factors can’t blow out the longing.
The sea waits dutifully,
ready to be worked, ready to be loved.
Feet into saltwater, the cold turns to warmth,
turns to heat, turns to flame,
becomes peace, burns with joy: alive.
– Jamie Woods
-Jane Dougherty
Bios And Links
-John Phandal Law
is 68. Lives in Mexborough. Retired teacher. Artist; musician; poet. Recently included in ‘Viral Verses‘ poetry volume. Married. 2 kids; 3 grandkids
-Gaynor Kane
Gaynor Kane lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she is a part-time creative, involved in the local arts scene. She writes poetry and is an amateur artist and photographer. In all her creative activities she is looking to capture moments that might otherwise be missed. Discover more at gaynorkane.com
Twitter @gaynorkane
Facebook @gaynorkanepoet
Instagram @gaynorkanepoet
-Anjum Wasim Dar
started drawing at St Anne’s Presentation Convent High School, Rawalpindi.
Drawing was taught as a Core subject from Kindergarten.
Anjum learnt the skill of Still Life, Sketching, Landscape Drawing, Coloring and Shading She recalled the scented wax crayons and black paper sketch books vividly.
Subject of Fine Arts at Intermediate level at Govt.College for Women Rawalpindi, was stopped by the Indo Pak War of 1965. Anjum continued her passion for art privately.
Her job as a Teacher Instructor allowed her to pursue Art work designing and preparing Thematic Bulletin Boards and Low cost teaching Aids with the Fauji Foundation Teacher’s Training Institute Rawalpindi. www.faujifoundation.org.
This won her the National Education Award 1998.
Completing a Course in Graphic Designing at NICON Academy Rawalpindi , Anjum began working as a Digital Artist, On Line, registered her Own Firm CER Creative Education Resources 2004 and is a Member of DRN Drawing Research Network UK and www.bigdraw.org.uk
https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/tracey/drn/
https://sites.google.com/site/cerprofessionaldevelopment/
With her artistic skills she plans and conducts “Environment Awareness Workshops for Children” and is a member of www.unep.org and www.earthday.org
CER Participated in World Environment Day and Earth Day Programs 2011-2013
“Face of Climate Change”
Anjum loves Nature, landscapes and abstract imagery. Works with pencils, crayons and the Software ArtRage 2.0 and MyPaint.
Anjum Wasim Dar’s Art Portfolio can be accessed here:
https://www.artwanted.com/anjuartwriter/gallery/
-Merril D. Smith
lives in southern New Jersey near the Delaware River. Her poetry has been published in several poetry journals and anthologies, including Black Bough Poetry, Anti-Heroin Chic, Fevers of the Mind, and Nightingale and Sparrow. Her first full-length poetry collection, River Ghosts, is forthcoming from Nightingale & Sparrow Press. Twitter: @merril_mds Instagram: mdsmithnj Website/blog: merrildsmith.com
-Lesley James(she/her)
is a teacher and writer. She was shortlisted for Love Reading UK’s 2022 Very Short Story Award. Featured flash can be found in The Broken Spine, FullHouseLitMag and RoiFaineant. Kathryn O’Driscoll selected her poem Empty for Full House’s 2021 mental health live reading and forthcoming podcast. Brian Moses, The Dirigible Balloon and Parakeet Magazine have published some of her writing for children.
-Lynne Jensen Lampe
has poems in or forthcoming from Figure 1, Olney Magazine, Yemassee, Moist Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. Also to come is her chapbook Talk Smack to a Hurricane (Ice Floe Press, 2022) about mothers, daughters, and mental illness. She was a 2020 Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize finalist. Born in Newfoundland and raised in the Deep South, she lives in mid-Missouri where she edits academic books and journals. Visit her at https://lynnejensenlampe.com. Twitter: @LJensenLampe.
work appears in various online and print publications. She earned both third place and honorary mention for two poems in Well Versed 2021. She is currently writing her first poetry collection about her relationship with her mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s. From that memoir collection, her poem “Marie Kindo Cleans My Purse at Starbucks” was voted Spillwords Publication of the Month of January and February 2022. Barbara was also voted Spillwords Author of the Month of October 2021 and recognized as a Spillwords Socialite of the Year in 2021. You can follow her on WordPress at https://www.extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog.
-Math Jones
is London-born, but is now based in Oxford. He has two books published: Sabrina Bridge, a poetry collection, from Black Pear Press (2017), and The Knotsman, a collection of verse, rhyme, prose and poetic monologue, which tell of the life and times of a C17th cunning-man. Much of his verse comes out of mythology and folklore: encounters with the uncanny and unseen. Also, as words written for Pagan ritual or as praise poems for a multitude of goddesses and gods. He is a trained actor and performs his poems widely.
-Caroline Johnstone
is an author and poet from Northern Ireland now living in Scotland. She has been published widely including Poetry Scotland, The Blue Nib and Marble Poetry. She loves spending time with her grandchildren, curling up with a good book and champagne or cocktails in no particular order.
-Lesley Curwen
is a poet and sailor living in Plymouth. She often writes about loss, rescues and the sea.
Her work has been published in anthologies from Arachne Press, Nine Pens, Quay Words, Slate, snakeskin, and soon by BrokenSpine and Broken Sleep.
Her poetic relationship with sound has been helped by her work as a BBC broadcaster, editing words on screen.
-Carrie Ann Golden
is from the mystical Adirondack Mountains now living on a farmstead in the Red River Valley of North Dakota (USA). She writes dark fiction and poetry. A Deafblind, her work has been published in places such as GFT Press, Doll Hospital Journal, The Hungry Chimera, Asylum Ink, Piker Press, Edify Fiction and others. You can find her on her writing blog as well as Medium and Twitter.
-Jen Feroze
lives by the sea in Essex with her husband and two small children. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in a variety of publications including Ink Sweat & Tears, Chestnut Review, Atrium and The Madrigal. Her first collection, The Colour of Hope, was published in 2020 and she’s currently working on a chapbook of poems about early motherhood.
-Paul Brookes
is a shop asst in a supermarket. Lives in a cat house full of teddy bears. First play performed at The Gulbenkian Theatre, Hull. His chapbooks include The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018) The Spermbot Blues (OpPRESS, 2017), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018), As Folk Over Yonder ( Afterworld Books, 2019). He is a contributing writer of Literati Magazine and Editor of Wombwell Rainbow Interviews, book reviews and challenges. Had work broadcast on BBC Radio 3 The Verb and, videos of his Self Isolation sonnet sequence featured by Barnsley Museums and Hear My Voice Barnsley. He also does photography commissions. Most recent is a poetry collaboration with artworker Jane Cornwell: “Wonderland in Alice, plus other ways of seeing”, (JCStudio Press, 2021)
NaPoWriMo 2022 day 28
Day 28, Ekphrastic Challenge, My Poem, The Result
Inspired by AWD, “Politics”
The Result
With alligator smiles
they dazzled, dangling
the promise of freedom
on the tips of their sharp teeth
but the monstrous jaws snapped,
cities, trees, people fell
fertilizing the ground with blood–
no flowers bloomed,
no bird sang at dawn,
only death awakened this spring,
I am once again participating in Paul Brookes’ April Ekphrastic Challenge. Each day, I will post my poem(s) here. You can see the art and read the other responses by going to Paul’s site here.
The artists are Gaynor Kane, John Phandal Law, and Anjum Wasim Dar. Thank you for your wonderful and inspiring art!
Green grow the ashes
You can see the artworks that inspired this san san for Paul Brookes’ April poetry challenge here, and read all the poetry that came out of them.
Green grow the ashes
Green grew high then golden faced,
scratched black with eyebrow-arching crows,
a glitter in the blue then screaming red.
The scattered gold, infertile waste,
where only twisted shrapnel grows,
red-bloomed black mouths O in surprise.
Tears glint among the ashes; dead
the hope that Firebird might rise.
Day 28. My annual National Poetry Month 2022 ekphrastic challenge is a collaboration between artists Gaynor Kane, John Phandal Law, Anjum Wasim Dar, and writers, Tim Fellows, Math Jones, Merril D. Smith, Jamie Woods, Lesley James, Lesley Curwen, Carrie Ann Golden, Peter A., Barbara Leonhard, Jane Dougherty, Jen Feroze, Vicky Allen, Simon Williams, Jona Roy, Beth Brooke, Caroline Johnstone, Lynne Jensen Lampe and myself. April 28th.
Day Twenty-Eighth
-Gaynor Kane – St. John’s Lighthouse
-John Phandal Law
-Anjum Wasim Dar – Politics
It Could Be Us
To AWD-28 Politics
I make signs pronouncing compassion, kindness,
unity with hearts dressed in colors for Ukraine.
Viktoriia’s sign,
“Children are not Nazies!”
We stand on a busy corner daily at 5:00pm. Her baby
naps in a carrier
against a warm bosom
as Putin bombs schools
and soldiers massacre mothers
with newborns.
Honking cars respond with loud wails. People pull over
to get free signs.
Stop Russia!
Save Ukraine!
Viktoriia calls her family there daily.
Another Ukrainian friend
hasn’t heard from her relatives
for weeks now.
“We’re hoping
it’s just that
the internet is down.”
But in Mariupol –
mass graves.
Another friend’s elderly father
who has Parkinson’s
is nearly abandoned
as helpers have fled.
She’s on the phone daily
pleading for others
to aid this man in his nineties. Get him his meds.
Some food.
Across the street from our crowd in blue and yellow
stands a bearded man
as old as war
holding his hunched-over sign, “Save Palestine.”
I can see through him
to his dissolving joints. We wave
as he teeters off, still
seeking recovery.
-Barbara Leonhard
AWD28 – Politics
once I thought it was
something to do with being
diplomatic, democratic and
acting in the best interest of
everyone, so all
that really used to bother
me about becoming one
of them and rising to the
top of their power-heap
was the thought of
occasions that may arise –
part of the job of course –
to determine some have
to sacrifice their lives on
my orders,
my stroke of the
pen/ I used to pity a leader
placed in such an invidious
situation – sad now to know
better
-Peter A.
Day 28 AWD & JPL
Seeds into soil; last year’s harvest grew ripe
and golden in fields.
What new thing grows when shells
are sown? The rich dust is buried.
Truth must push up, fertile as sunflowers.
-Lesley James
GK28 St Johns Lighthouse
A finger to the heavens, thrust
against mares-tail clouds, flat sky.
Neutered by daylight, its garish
shape is a hackneyed seaside trope.
When dusk crawls on its stone
face, a single rotating eye
blasts light seawards, makes
sense of mariners’ darkness.
-Lesley Curwen
Countryside—a tanka (AWD28 + JPL28)
Their field groans clover
and headstones. We seed the land
with cluster bombs, hustle grief,
feed rage. Cellar promises
till the people cry enough.
—Lynne Jensen Lampe
Ukraine
after Miguel Hernandez
We come from the earth;
lands of wheat, from the same milk.
Sun and air, flowers that laugh
at the gently falling snow.
And we will fight now, fists
clenched and blood in our throats.
And to the earth we will return.
-Tim Fellows
Languages (GK28)
the stars, the moon whisper
instructions I cannot hear
tides tell tales
I have not yet deciphered
even the solid earth offers
particulate instruction, unheeded
I confess my ignorance
the world is speaking and I am straining to understand
yet I understand this:
you stretch out a high alert.
Your light betrays threat –
you sing us away in silent eloquence
-Vicky Allen
The Hurricane Called Life (GK28)
I’m lost
In the brutal storm
Of life
The winds
Are tearing me
Apart
The darkness
Seeps deep into
My soul
Raindrops
Slash at my face
They taste
Like blood
I’m drifting
Endlessly, hopelessly
I’m drowning
In fear, in anguish
A flash of light
Draws my eyes
There, in the distance
A lighthouse
Standing firm against
The onslaught of the towering
Black waves
This beacon
An angel in disguise
Summons, calls
Me towards it
‘Tis all I needed
To hold on
‘till I reach those
Glorious white shores
-Carrie Ann Golden
28. [Politics ADW28]
Helicoptered in,
your politics
are just a way to say ‘no’.
Let us cling to our denial,
each in our own way,
of what the other people say.
It’s not as if any of us
is floating off the ground,
has no ground beneath our backs.
Except, that helicopter,
buzz buzz buzz above your head,
keeping you safe from the spinning ground.
-Math Jones
The Result (Inspired by AWD, “Politics”)
With alligator smiles
they dazzled, dangling
the promise of freedom
on the tips of their sharp teeth
but the monstrous jaws snapped,
cities, trees, people fell
fertilizing the ground with blood–
no flowers bloomed,
no bird sang at dawn,
only death awakened this spring,
-Merril D. Smith
Hayfever
after JPL28
As we drive past pantone colour charts
full of sheep or polytunnels
I’ll ask city-boy questions
and my wife smiles, and tells me things
like “that’s not hay, it’s straw”
or “that’s not straw, it’s hay”.
And she knows that I’ll never
remember the difference between
one set of yellowing grave stones
and another, like she has to remind me
to take my non-drowsy Loratadine
or I’ll ruin a nice day out
with husked sneezing, sugar beet eyes,
and a scrambling vetched headache.
– Jamie Woods
Green grow the ashes (inspired by John Phandal Law and Anjum Wasim Dar)
Green grew high then golden faced,
scratched black with eyebrow-arching crows,
a glitter in the blue then screaming red.
The scattered gold, infertile waste,
where only twisted shrapnel grows,
red-bloomed black mouths O in surprise.
Tears glint among the ashes; dead
the hope that Firebird might rise.
-Jane Dougherty
Bios And Links
-John Phandal Law
is 68. Lives in Mexborough. Retired teacher. Artist; musician; poet. Recently included in ‘Viral Verses‘ poetry volume. Married. 2 kids; 3 grandkids
-Gaynor Kane
Gaynor Kane lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she is a part-time creative, involved in the local arts scene. She writes poetry and is an amateur artist and photographer. In all her creative activities she is looking to capture moments that might otherwise be missed. Discover more at gaynorkane.com
Twitter @gaynorkane
Facebook @gaynorkanepoet
Instagram @gaynorkanepoet
-Anjum Wasim Dar
started drawing at St Anne’s Presentation Convent High School, Rawalpindi.
Drawing was taught as a Core subject from Kindergarten.
Anjum learnt the skill of Still Life, Sketching, Landscape Drawing, Coloring and Shading She recalled the scented wax crayons and black paper sketch books vividly.
Subject of Fine Arts at Intermediate level at Govt.College for Women Rawalpindi, was stopped by the Indo Pak War of 1965. Anjum continued her passion for art privately.
Her job as a Teacher Instructor allowed her to pursue Art work designing and preparing Thematic Bulletin Boards and Low cost teaching Aids with the Fauji Foundation Teacher’s Training Institute Rawalpindi. www.faujifoundation.org.
This won her the National Education Award 1998.
Completing a Course in Graphic Designing at NICON Academy Rawalpindi , Anjum began working as a Digital Artist, On Line, registered her Own Firm CER Creative Education Resources 2004 and is a Member of DRN Drawing Research Network UK and www.bigdraw.org.uk
https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/tracey/drn/
https://sites.google.com/site/cerprofessionaldevelopment/
With her artistic skills she plans and conducts “Environment Awareness Workshops for Children” and is a member of www.unep.org and www.earthday.org
CER Participated in World Environment Day and Earth Day Programs 2011-2013
“Face of Climate Change”
Anjum loves Nature, landscapes and abstract imagery. Works with pencils, crayons and the Software ArtRage 2.0 and MyPaint.
Anjum Wasim Dar’s Art Portfolio can be accessed here:
https://www.artwanted.com/anjuartwriter/gallery/
-Merril D. Smith
lives in southern New Jersey near the Delaware River. Her poetry has been published in several poetry journals and anthologies, including Black Bough Poetry, Anti-Heroin Chic, Fevers of the Mind, and Nightingale and Sparrow. Her first full-length poetry collection, River Ghosts, is forthcoming from Nightingale & Sparrow Press. Twitter: @merril_mds Instagram: mdsmithnj Website/blog: merrildsmith.com
-Lesley James(she/her)
is a teacher and writer. She was shortlisted for Love Reading UK’s 2022 Very Short Story Award. Featured flash can be found in The Broken Spine, FullHouseLitMag and RoiFaineant. Kathryn O’Driscoll selected her poem Empty for Full House’s 2021 mental health live reading and forthcoming podcast. Brian Moses, The Dirigible Balloon and Parakeet Magazine have published some of her writing for children.
-Lynne Jensen Lampe
has poems in or forthcoming from Figure 1, Olney Magazine, Yemassee, Moist Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. Also to come is her chapbook Talk Smack to a Hurricane (Ice Floe Press, 2022) about mothers, daughters, and mental illness. She was a 2020 Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize finalist. Born in Newfoundland and raised in the Deep South, she lives in mid-Missouri where she edits academic books and journals. Visit her at https://lynnejensenlampe.com. Twitter: @LJensenLampe.
work appears in various online and print publications. She earned both third place and honorary mention for two poems in Well Versed 2021. She is currently writing her first poetry collection about her relationship with her mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s. From that memoir collection, her poem “Marie Kindo Cleans My Purse at Starbucks” was voted Spillwords Publication of the Month of January and February 2022. Barbara was also voted Spillwords Author of the Month of October 2021 and recognized as a Spillwords Socialite of the Year in 2021. You can follow her on WordPress at https://www.extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog.
-Math Jones
is London-born, but is now based in Oxford. He has two books published: Sabrina Bridge, a poetry collection, from Black Pear Press (2017), and The Knotsman, a collection of verse, rhyme, prose and poetic monologue, which tell of the life and times of a C17th cunning-man. Much of his verse comes out of mythology and folklore: encounters with the uncanny and unseen. Also, as words written for Pagan ritual or as praise poems for a multitude of goddesses and gods. He is a trained actor and performs his poems widely.
-Caroline Johnstone
is an author and poet from Northern Ireland now living in Scotland. She has been published widely including Poetry Scotland, The Blue Nib and Marble Poetry. She loves spending time with her grandchildren, curling up with a good book and champagne or cocktails in no particular order.
-Lesley Curwen
is a poet and sailor living in Plymouth. She often writes about loss, rescues and the sea.
Her work has been published in anthologies from Arachne Press, Nine Pens, Quay Words, Slate, snakeskin, and soon by BrokenSpine and Broken Sleep.
Her poetic relationship with sound has been helped by her work as a BBC broadcaster, editing words on screen.
-Carrie Ann Golden
is from the mystical Adirondack Mountains now living on a farmstead in the Red River Valley of North Dakota (USA). She writes dark fiction and poetry. A Deafblind, her work has been published in places such as GFT Press, Doll Hospital Journal, The Hungry Chimera, Asylum Ink, Piker Press, Edify Fiction and others. You can find her on her writing blog as well as Medium and Twitter.
-Jen Feroze
lives by the sea in Essex with her husband and two small children. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in a variety of publications including Ink Sweat & Tears, Chestnut Review, Atrium and The Madrigal. Her first collection, The Colour of Hope, was published in 2020 and she’s currently working on a chapbook of poems about early motherhood.
-Paul Brookes
is a shop asst in a supermarket. Lives in a cat house full of teddy bears. First play performed at The Gulbenkian Theatre, Hull. His chapbooks include The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018) The Spermbot Blues (OpPRESS, 2017), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018), As Folk Over Yonder ( Afterworld Books, 2019). He is a contributing writer of Literati Magazine and Editor of Wombwell Rainbow Interviews, book reviews and challenges. Had work broadcast on BBC Radio 3 The Verb and, videos of his Self Isolation sonnet sequence featured by Barnsley Museums and Hear My Voice Barnsley. He also does photography commissions. Most recent is a poetry collaboration with artworker Jane Cornwell: “Wonderland in Alice, plus other ways of seeing”, (JCStudio Press, 2021)
Thrills
Today’s poem for Paul Brookes’ April poetry challenge was inspired by Gaynor Kane’s photo of Salthill fairground. You can read all the poetry on Paul’s blog.
Thrills
The spectacle of risk,
fear of falling, dying,
the precipice edge,
once enacted
with no blunted weapons,
is now sugared with candy floss,
children’s laughter,
the simulation of risk
in waltzing teacups,
and the prize is not glory
but a cheap, grinning
teddy bear.
Three Poems – Nonso Okoye
Fog
The last time we spoke,
Kano was covered in a film of dust, and our quarrels
sent waves crashing against our balcony.
A butterfly flickered past. I reached for your hands
like my world was ending in a few.
The harmattan lifted.
And my fingers are coated with dust.
Splashing
It’s that time of the year when birds
fly eastwards to be loved.
You leave at the first sun.
The new chilliness stings my face raw.
And time burns holes through your pressed lips.
We don’t have all night
to see in the shade of the fog.
Come fall, the trees will knee.
Rivers splashing in agreement
Think of me as your hills and valleys
Or the shallow-winged bird waiting for your return.
Peaceful Practice
Another mob converged over a migrant and retreated,
and a body lay on the hot street of Zungeru,
a feast for crows and vultures…
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