The poems of Measures embrace lyrical tendencies as they move through the seasons of a troubled relationship. Both absence and presence haunt the pages of b. l. bruce’s poetry collection, Measures. A one time lover and longed for friend adventures to the water, leaving their companion alone on the shore. Wrinkles appear as if grooved overnight, and the […]
Review of ‘Measures’ from Clarion Reviews — Bri Bruce Productions
It’s been a busy few weeks. To tell the truth, I’m feeling a little over-exposed. You know how annoying it is: Poet X has just launched this, then it’s announced they’re going to be judging some competition or other, then someone has just interviewed them or whatever and you just think I’ve had enough of…
On over-exposure and other poetry ups and downs — Robin Houghton
In my short text ‘Emma bolland | Hestia Peppe’, published in Salon for a Speculative Future, (eds Monika Oeschler with Sharon Kivland, MA BIBLIOTHÈQUE, 2020), I coined the term ‘amica-critical’ to describe the kinds of friendships essential for the creation and sustainability of supportive, reciprocally generous, creative-critical communities. I believe these kinds of friendships to […]
Transmission: On Collaboration, Response, and the ‘Amica-critical’ — Emma Bolland
Her Names are Many
Look, there she goes. Dressed in her finery for a Gypsy Rommer.
Black leather boots, long purple dress gold around her neck and a feather in her hat,
She’ll mingle with the guests, drink wine until she’s skimmished.
She’ll hitch her skirts up. Dance like the young ones.
Just before she leaves she’ll give order and sing a song
that nobody knows but everyone loves and then she’ll disappear into the shadows
into the dust that rolls along the empty streets and never settles.
Rommer – wedding; Skimmished – drunk.
Dark is the Forest
Dark is the forest and deep, In times gone past it’s where we’d sleep. Under the oaks or the Hawthorn tree, drop our covels, our minds roam free.
Dark is the forest and deep, for dukkering, our malts will keep, a small gold ring tied with string, around their wrist or in…
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I’m particularly delighted to welcome Anna Saunders today to talk about poems in her new collection, ‘Feverfew’.
When I studied for my MA (under the superb Irish poet, Nigel Mcloughlin, at The University of Gloucestershire) we presented a collection of poems and a critical analysis for our final dissertation. This selection of poems went onto be published as the book Struck (Pindrop Press 2014) and though it’s my latest book Feverfew (Indigo Dreams 2021) that I am talking about here, what I said then is still relevant now. In the essay I analysed my work in relation to the Confessional mode, and detailed how my work had been inspired / influenced by the genre birthed by Lowell, Plath and Sexton.
And, whereas I lean a little bit more to Imagism as a genre, than that of the more conversational mode of the true Confessionals, I had much in common with…
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Here are two poems from my, as yet unpublished pamphlet on domestic violence:
SIGNS OF HIS PRESENCE
Kitchen door dented
where your ex flew off the handle
at the slightest.
Your ears attuned
to strange cars in the cul-de-sac.
Twitch
open curtains, check.
You could not
say his name for six months
after
you told him to go.
SAFETY
Dumb-bell by her bedside.
Under her pillow baseball bat.
Knives on surfaces
lead poker on landing,
Knives sharp,
dumb-bell heavy
as stories of his holding
frying-pan above her head
to make his point,
He is here…
waits…
for her to be alone
to bring him out
-Paul Brookes
Swifter than swifts, the years fly,
time drifts
and shifts
passing dove-soft and eagle-fierce. Cry for
generations lost
mother gone, but sisters here,
my cygnets grown swan-regal; adoring and adored,
I’m fortunate
to have love, wisdom, goodness—
feather-winged treasures, these women,
the bird-goddess sings.
For dVerse, Sarah asks us to use the word swift in a quadrille. It is also International Women’s Day 2021. The theme this year is Choose to Challenge, so this is a small tribute to my mother, sisters, and daughters, who have all challenged life and norms in some way. Ingrid at Experiments in Fiction is doing an International Women’s Day Challenge.
Here is the first instalment of the Spring 2021 issue of The High Window.
The following new material can be found via the top menu:
There are also four new poems in the Editor’s Spot.
The remaining sections, comprising the translations, the reviews and the UK Featured Poet, will be available in a fortnight.
Finally, The High Window Press has published The Leading Question by Roger Elkin, a collection of poems explorin the Irish Potato Famine.
Enjoy!
David
Steve Lambert’s writing has been published widely in the United States and beyond. appeared, He is the recipient of four Pushcart Prize nominations and was a Rash Award in Fiction finalist. He is the author of the poetry collection Heat Seekers (2017), the chapbook In Eynsham (2020) and the fiction collection The Patron Saint of Birds (2020). His novel, Philisteens, will be out May 2021 and his next poetry collection, The Shamble, will be out in October, both with Close to The Bone Publishing. He lives in Northeast Florida, with his wife and daughter, where he teaches part-time at the University of North Florida.
*****
What people have been saying about Steve Lambert’s poetry.
“In this bold and brilliant debut collection of poetry, Lambert drags his ambivalent pen across the vast human field of the sacred mundane and the quietly profound. With the unapologetic…
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*****
Sarah Barr • Penny Blackburn • Miki Byrne • Lorraine Carey • Charlie Casper• Katherine Collins • Jim Conwell • Michael Crowley • Robin Davidson • Charlotte Derrick • Clive Donovan • Claire Dyer • Kieran Egan • Dominic Fisher • Evan Fowler • Marilyn Francis • Chris Hardy • Ian Heffernan • Phil Kirby • Emma Lee • Michael Lithgow • Kathleen McPhilemy • Mark Mansfield • Brian Palmer • Matthew Paul • Stuart Pickford • Colin Pink • D. A. Prince • Margarita Serafimova •Jill Sharp • John Short • Fiona Sinclair• Kim Waters • J.S.Watts • June Wentland • Jay Wickersham
Previous Poetry
THW20: December 4, 2020 •THW19: September 5, 2020 • THW18: May 4, 2020 • THW17:March 7, 2020 • THW 16: December 4, 2019 • THW 15: September 5, 2019 • THW 14: June 3, 2019 • THW…
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The Wombwell Rainbow 
