We explore more similarities and differences between the coronavirus of 2020 and the plague of 17th century London. City lockdown, silence and noise in the streets, wild rumours and pandemic inequality.
View original post 1,329 more words
We explore more similarities and differences between the coronavirus of 2020 and the plague of 17th century London. City lockdown, silence and noise in the streets, wild rumours and pandemic inequality.
View original post 1,329 more words
Stories From the Edge of Blindness
First and most importantly, I hope all who are reading this are safe and well and home. I am, as ever so incredibly grateful for the support and presence of this community in my life!
Continuing with my recorded poetry series, today I am offering the fourth of six poems originally published in Chantarelle’s Notebook. I hope you like it. Video credit goes entirely to my husband, Joe Richardson.

ABP– Thank you for taking this interview, Scott. As one of our first publications ever, Alien Buddha Press had the privilege of releasing your poetry collection Poison in Paradise back in late June of 2017. What can you tell us about that book? What went into writing it, and how do you feel about the collection now almost 3 years later?
STO- It’s my pleasure, Red. I appreciate the opportunity.
I was flipping through the pages of Poison in Paradise while thinking about this question today. Looking back, one of the aspects I dig most is that we included the selection of full color photographs taken by you and Jay Miner. Working to align them in the book to weave a narrative along with the poems was an interesting process and it adds a unique flavor to the collection.
It’s difficult to put my finger on exactly what this…
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Ascension
Descent is never easy.
Sometimes, it’s a
Slow-motion sensation.
Though the ground is drawing near, and
That familiar sinking feeling settles in,
It’s not welcome.
Descent becomes denial.
“Keep looking up!”
We tell ourselves and each other.
But all the searching skyward can’t deny gravity its pull.
The mind is forced to
Meet the body in a downward lull.
Until,
Earth finally doesn’t
Feel so low, again.
And the heart remembers ascension
Was never about rising,
But transformation.
-st
You Meet
eternity in a shopping queue
if you don’t keep your distance.
Eternity in the hand,
or in the change in it.
Eternity in the unthinking
person who brushes past,
their eye on the goal
of an item missed.
Despite your precautions.
your gloves and mask.
Don’t steer your plane into clouds.
Many hide a mountainside.
-Paul Brookes
Stream of Consciousness from a Moonless Sky
The stars are falling from the sky, tiny fires that extinguish on impact. They have lost their way and forgotten the shape of the earth. Where does darkness hide in a world that sits in the palm of a storm? The moon breaks into pieces, a million small blades that are eager to pluck the light from my eyes. I am a constellation with no center, no wings to scoop up the wind. I try to fly, but the roots of despair are heavy and tether me. I am a moonless sky, plummeting into the sun, terrified my secrets will be discovered.
-Susan Richardson
Emotional Currency
All feelings levitate towards the sky
and every signal joins their hands to soar.
The qualitative nouns have welcome Visa;
there is a barter system of emotions.
Do buy the sadness from me but only
if you contribute courage. I don’t
have enmity in stock; check if compassion
would do. They want to search if there is water
on Mars. I’m worried whether there is love.
For transporting water needs a lot of cash—
Expensive! but sharing love is as simple as
tagging a person and sending message
into the cloud. My emotional rainbow is ready—
Begin and send unwritten postcards to me in space.
-Jay Gandhi
Bios and links
-Jane Cornwell
likes drawing and painting children, animals, landscapes and food. She specialises in watercolour, mixed media, coloured pencil, lino cut and print, textile design. Jane can help you out with adobe indesign for your layout needs, photoshop and adobe illustrator. She graduated with a ba(hons) design from Glasgow School of art, age 20.
She has exhibited with the rsw at the national gallery of scotland, SSA, Knock Castle Gallery, Glasgow Group, Paisley Art Institute, MacMillan Exhibition at Bonhams, Edinburgh, The House For An Art Lover, Pittenweem Arts Festival, Compass Gallery, The Revive Show, East Linton Art Exhibition and Strathkelvin Annual Art Exhibition.
-Susan Richardson
is an award winning, internationally published poet. She is the author of “Things My Mother Left Behind”, coming from Potter’s Grove Press in 2020, and also writes the blog, “Stories from the Edge of Blindness”. You can find her on Twitter @floweringink, listen to her on YouTube, and read more of her work on her website.
Here is my updated 2018 interview of her: https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2020/04/08/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-susan-richardson/
-Ali Jones
is a teacher, and writer with work published in a variety of places, from Poetry Ireland Review, Proletarian Poetry and The Interpreter’s House, to The Green Parent Magazine and The Guardian. She has a particular interest in the role of nature in literature, and is a champion of contemporary poetry in the secondary school classroom.
Here is my 2019 interview of her: https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/12/28/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-ali-jones/
-Jay Gandhi
is a Software Engineer by qualification, an accountant by profession, a budding Guitarist & a Yoga Sadhak at heart and a poet by his soul. Poetry intrigues him because it’s an art in which a simple yet profound skill of placing words next to each other can create something so touching and literally sweep him of the floor. He is 32-year-old Indian and stays in Mumbai. His works have appeared in the following places:
An ebook named “Pav-bhaji @ Achija” available in the Kindle format at Amazon.in The poem “Salsa; a self discovery” published in an anthology motivated by Late Sir APJ Abdul Kalam. The poem “High Caloried love” selected for an upcoming book “Once upon a meal” The poem “Strawberry Lip Balm” selected in the anthology “Talking to the poets” Four poems published in a bilingual anthology “Persian Sugar in English Tea” Vol.1 Two poems published in the anthology “Poets on the Run” compiled by RC James.
Here is my 2018 interview with him: https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/09/23/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-jay-Gandhi/
-Samantha Terrell
is an American poet whose work emphasizes emotional integrity and social justice. She is the author of several eBooks including, Learning from Pompeii, Coffee for Neanderthals, Disgracing Lady Justice and others, available on smashwords.com and its affiliates.Chapbook: Ebola (West Chester University Poetry Center, 2014)
Website: poetrybysamantha.weebly.com
Twitter: @honestypoetry
Here is my 2020 interview of her:
https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2020/04/08/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-samantha-terrell/
-Paul Brookes
is a shop asst. Lives in a cat house full of teddy bears. His chapbooks include The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). The Headpoke and Firewedding (Alien Buddha Press, 2017), A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018) The Spermbot Blues (OpPRESS, 2017), Port Of Souls (Alien Buddha Press, 2018), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018), Stubborn Sod, with Marcel Herms (artist) (Alien Buddha Press, 2019), As Folk Over Yonder ( Afterworld Books, 2019). Forthcoming Khoshhali with Hiva Moazed (artist), Our Ghost’s Holiday (Final book of threesome “A Pagan’s Year”) . He is a contributing writer of Literati Magazine and Editor of Wombwell Rainbow Interviews.
YouTube; Poetry Is A Bag For Life
Twitter: @PaulDragonwolf1
WordPress: thewombwellrainbow.wordpress.com
Facebook: Paul Brookes – Writer and Photographer
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulbrookes07/
.day 31.
later here as i chatted to a friend
who commented that i am up early
reminded him therefore he is early
too to respond
the stone walls are everywhere, old crumbling
some rebuilt recently
one down the lane
i watched him a while
found some old bits of stuff
in the debris, plates and metal bits
and kept them
he pointed at my broken wall, slumping
said he can fix it if it goes and
i thought that i shall probably be gone
by then too
and save the expense
so the walls line my walk all the way
and back, in the distance follow up
over the hills, the mountains
in the cwm are made of slate off cuts
differing colours pertaining to the
region
like old grey teeth edging the path,
the field fastened by wire
do you know them james
do you have them there
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The Silver Darlings (After the Wick disaster 1848)
Was that what we called them?
As they slipped between our hands,
from gutting table to salter
to packer to barrel, clogs in time.
We never minded the rising red,
the stink that told you of home.
From what I remember, the day was ordinary,
August heat, and a fleet sea sortie.
set south, on the Lammas tide,
out beyond the bay to the horizon,
a night fall, nets shot – waiting.
Everyone breathed with the wind.
Some did read the signs in the sky –
turned before the angry clouds
chased them back to shore,
For the last time. In the growling gale.
columns of air, walls of water,
before they knew it they were on the rocks.
We watched, spectators sewn together
in hope, willing them back in on wings
and moonlight. One by one, briny gauntlet
ran,wood kissing wood in awkward embrace.
The maths worked out like this, thirty seven gone,
equals sixty three fatherless children,
seventeen widows.
Nobody sails the lammas tide
for fear and superstition.
What have we learnt?
That a small keel will not favour a strong swell,
that fore and aft you must do more, always.
Ninety four over thirty was enough for our small town,
Black Saturday is still a thing.
There is no memorial though,
the sea always made a pact,
to keep hold of the dead.
= Ali Jones
Adornments
Variants of blue fish
Uniformly line the dresser runner
My sister bought for us in
East Africa, some years ago now.
They keep order
All day and night,
A neat school
Side-by-side-by-side,
An ornament to the dresser,
That decorates our bedroom,
Storing ornaments for the body.
But what decorates our souls?
We need loaves along with our fishes,
Humility along with our pride,
Chaos along with the order of
Fish swimming on white linen.
-st
Kill It My Sister
screams at the fish flap
gasp for air on Flamborough’s
Summer warmed stone quay
where moments before
we lobbed our line
into an income of waves.
Smash its brains out. Its what
You’re supposed to do.
You’re scared.
As the fish eyes memorise my face.
You do it then. I say.
and recall our glee.
Caught one! she shouts.
You do it. I say,
as the fish struggles for air.
I caught it, Its your turn,
I remember when we got the reel
talked of bringing a fish
home for tea, for mam and dad.
I throw the fish back.
Coward, she says.
-Paul Brookes
Fish in the Hand
Slippery landlord
doesn’t wear a mask,
thinks the pandemic
can’t touch his fat wallet.
He demands we let him in,
thinks the law is on his side.
Ask Mr. Mayor,
we shout.
Ask Mr. Policeman.
Ask the family next door
whose matriarch died.
See that barricade on the door?
That’s for you Mr. Fish in the Hand.
You aren’t coming inside.
-Susan Richardson
MONOSTICH
Tuna looks brighter in water than on plate
-Jay Gandhi
Bios and links
-Jane Cornwell
likes drawing and painting children, animals, landscapes and food. She specialises in watercolour, mixed media, coloured pencil, lino cut and print, textile design. Jane can help you out with adobe indesign for your layout needs, photoshop and adobe illustrator. She graduated with a ba(hons) design from Glasgow School of art, age 20.
She has exhibited with the rsw at the national gallery of scotland, SSA, Knock Castle Gallery, Glasgow Group, Paisley Art Institute, MacMillan Exhibition at Bonhams, Edinburgh, The House For An Art Lover, Pittenweem Arts Festival, Compass Gallery, The Revive Show, East Linton Art Exhibition and Strathkelvin Annual Art Exhibition.
-Susan Richardson
is an award winning, internationally published poet. She is the author of “Things My Mother Left Behind”, coming from Potter’s Grove Press in 2020, and also writes the blog, “Stories from the Edge of Blindness”. You can find her on Twitter @floweringink, listen to her on YouTube, and read more of her work on her website.
Here is my updated 2018 interview of her: https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2020/04/08/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-susan-richardson/
-Ali Jones
is a teacher, and writer with work published in a variety of places, from Poetry Ireland Review, Proletarian Poetry and The Interpreter’s House, to The Green Parent Magazine and The Guardian. She has a particular interest in the role of nature in literature, and is a champion of contemporary poetry in the secondary school classroom.
Here is my 2019 interview of her: https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/12/28/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-ali-jones/
-Jay Gandhi
is a Software Engineer by qualification, an accountant by profession, a budding Guitarist & a Yoga Sadhak at heart and a poet by his soul. Poetry intrigues him because it’s an art in which a simple yet profound skill of placing words next to each other can create something so touching and literally sweep him of the floor. He is 32-year-old Indian and stays in Mumbai. His works have appeared in the following places:
An ebook named “Pav-bhaji @ Achija” available in the Kindle format at Amazon.in The poem “Salsa; a self discovery” published in an anthology motivated by Late Sir APJ Abdul Kalam. The poem “High Caloried love” selected for an upcoming book “Once upon a meal” The poem “Strawberry Lip Balm” selected in the anthology “Talking to the poets” Four poems published in a bilingual anthology “Persian Sugar in English Tea” Vol.1 Two poems published in the anthology “Poets on the Run” compiled by RC James.
Here is my 2018 interview with him: https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/09/23/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-jay-Gandhi/
-Samantha Terrell
is an American poet whose work emphasizes emotional integrity and social justice. She is the author of several eBooks including, Learning from Pompeii, Coffee for Neanderthals, Disgracing Lady Justice and others, available on smashwords.com and its affiliates.Chapbook: Ebola (West Chester University Poetry Center, 2014)
Website: poetrybysamantha.weebly.com
Twitter: @honestypoetry
Here is my 2020 interview of her:
https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2020/04/08/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-samantha-terrell/
-Paul Brookes
is a shop asst. Lives in a cat house full of teddy bears. His chapbooks include The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). The Headpoke and Firewedding (Alien Buddha Press, 2017), A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018) The Spermbot Blues (OpPRESS, 2017), Port Of Souls (Alien Buddha Press, 2018), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018), Stubborn Sod, with Marcel Herms (artist) (Alien Buddha Press, 2019), As Folk Over Yonder ( Afterworld Books, 2019). Forthcoming Khoshhali with Hiva Moazed (artist), Our Ghost’s Holiday (Final book of threesome “A Pagan’s Year”) . He is a contributing writer of Literati Magazine and Editor of Wombwell Rainbow Interviews.
YouTube; Poetry Is A Bag For Life
Twitter: @PaulDragonwolf1
WordPress: thewombwellrainbow.wordpress.com
Facebook: Paul Brookes – Writer and Photographer
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulbrookes07/
..day 30..
another one has come along here recently
alongside the return of the grey thing, sweetheart
i call the new one tabby thing for now
while in llandudno the goats were on the beach
yesterday
instead of folk
we walked early yesterday hoping to be alone
the others had the same idea
we kept our distance
while calling over from
one lane to the other
there is one lamb with a black spot
shall we name him spot james for
these down the back lane have no
numbers
she told me back then that it does not hurt the sheep
all this intervention, cutting ears and the rest of it
she a farmer’s daughter
i am not sure i agree

Amateur comes from the Latinamator‘lover’, fromamare‘to love’ – one who does something for love. The modern definition is less wonderful, describing an amateur as a person who is incompetent or inept at a particular activity. Curious how it is no longer enough to do something just because you love to do it. The response I hear most when I tell people I write is “ooh are you going to be the next JK Rowling” –I scuttle away from the subject, and feel ashamed that no, I haven’t made a great deal of money from having work published, nor do I expect to. Those who know me know that making pots of cash has never been a driver for anything I do – I’m not an aspirational type of person and have no wish to be anything other than happy. I make a little money from writing…
View original post 561 more words

Lament
They were always barefoot,
the shoes they had were shared.
They went to church on Sundays,
to show the Duke they cared.
The father rose so early,
two haddocks on his plate.
Set against the time and tide,
‘til he met a watery fate.
They sailed out far to save a boat,
that struck upon the rocks;
floating fast above the foam,
where screaming seabirds flocked.
The turning tide was not their friend,
upon that fateful day;
the swirling currents sucked them down,
forever drowned to stay.
In gansys, mittens, oilskins,
lost deep within the waves,
with selkie sisters fathomed deep,
within a watery grave.
The sea, the sea, the sea our friend,
she brings us endless joys.
The sea, the sea, our enemy,
that she smashes boats like toys.
-Ali Jones
When the Sails Were Still Up
The American experiment
We learned about in school sailed straight
And true, with sails full of the winds of change.
The ocean was large, yet
Our nation was somehow larger.
With Manifest Destiny we claimed her.
But that was only the beginning of the journey.
The real claiming
Was in the taming Of our hearts,
To deserve her rich peoples
From all the world’s corners.
When we were her sailors,
We didn’t always steer right, but the sails were,
Indeed, still up.
We made corrections to our errors.
Now, sails down,
We watch helplessly
As she blows listlessly,
The victim of plutocratic pirates
Fighting over the helm, discussing her direction.
Whichever course is set,
presumes to dock her
at the same sad, destination.
-st
Age is only a number
Talisman
The sun falls like a talisman
pushing her sails toward the edges
of an autumn afternoon.
She is blind to what lurks beneath,
what may be waiting
on the watery path ahead,
but she glides onward,
tall and proud.
She never makes a sound.
-Susan Richardson
Vasco da Gama
I drift towards the foreign shore
and may not get the food to eat.
A place where hungry lions roar
and sands refuse to kiss my feet.
I will pluck the fruits from tree;
find waters to quench my thirst,
roam like a wanderer, remain free
create a house; survive cloudburst.
-Jay Gandhi
Bios and links
-Jane Cornwell
likes drawing and painting children, animals, landscapes and food. She specialises in watercolour, mixed media, coloured pencil, lino cut and print, textile design. Jane can help you out with adobe indesign for your layout needs, photoshop and adobe illustrator. She graduated with a ba(hons) design from Glasgow School of art, age 20.
She has exhibited with the rsw at the national gallery of scotland, SSA, Knock Castle Gallery, Glasgow Group, Paisley Art Institute, MacMillan Exhibition at Bonhams, Edinburgh, The House For An Art Lover, Pittenweem Arts Festival, Compass Gallery, The Revive Show, East Linton Art Exhibition and Strathkelvin Annual Art Exhibition.
-Susan Richardson
is an award winning, internationally published poet. She is the author of “Things My Mother Left Behind”, coming from Potter’s Grove Press in 2020, and also writes the blog, “Stories from the Edge of Blindness”. You can find her on Twitter @floweringink, listen to her on YouTube, and read more of her work on her website.
Here is my updated 2018 interview of her: https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2020/04/08/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-susan-richardson/
-Ali Jones
is a teacher, and writer with work published in a variety of places, from Poetry Ireland Review, Proletarian Poetry and The Interpreter’s House, to The Green Parent Magazine and The Guardian. She has a particular interest in the role of nature in literature, and is a champion of contemporary poetry in the secondary school classroom.
Here is my 2019 interview of her: https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/12/28/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-ali-jones/
-Jay Gandhi
is a Software Engineer by qualification, an accountant by profession, a budding Guitarist & a Yoga Sadhak at heart and a poet by his soul. Poetry intrigues him because it’s an art in which a simple yet profound skill of placing words next to each other can create something so touching and literally sweep him of the floor. He is 32-year-old Indian and stays in Mumbai. His works have appeared in the following places:
An ebook named “Pav-bhaji @ Achija” available in the Kindle format at Amazon.in The poem “Salsa; a self discovery” published in an anthology motivated by Late Sir APJ Abdul Kalam. The poem “High Caloried love” selected for an upcoming book “Once upon a meal” The poem “Strawberry Lip Balm” selected in the anthology “Talking to the poets” Four poems published in a bilingual anthology “Persian Sugar in English Tea” Vol.1 Two poems published in the anthology “Poets on the Run” compiled by RC James.
Here is my 2018 interview with him: https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/09/23/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-jay-Gandhi/
-Samantha Terrell
is an American poet whose work emphasizes emotional integrity and social justice. She is the author of several eBooks including, Learning from Pompeii, Coffee for Neanderthals, Disgracing Lady Justice and others, available on smashwords.com and its affiliates.Chapbook: Ebola (West Chester University Poetry Center, 2014)
Website: poetrybysamantha.weebly.com
Twitter: @honestypoetry
Here is my 2020 interview of her:
https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2020/04/08/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-samantha-terrell/
-Paul Brookes
is a shop asst. Lives in a cat house full of teddy bears. His chapbooks include The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). The Headpoke and Firewedding (Alien Buddha Press, 2017), A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018) The Spermbot Blues (OpPRESS, 2017), Port Of Souls (Alien Buddha Press, 2018), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018), Stubborn Sod, with Marcel Herms (artist) (Alien Buddha Press, 2019), As Folk Over Yonder ( Afterworld Books, 2019). Forthcoming Khoshhali with Hiva Moazed (artist), Our Ghost’s Holiday (Final book of threesome “A Pagan’s Year”) . He is a contributing writer of Literati Magazine and Editor of Wombwell Rainbow Interviews.
YouTube; Poetry Is A Bag For Life
Twitter: @PaulDragonwolf1
WordPress: thewombwellrainbow.wordpress.com
Facebook: Paul Brookes – Writer and Photographer
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulbrookes07/
Hiemal, within
piano notes flurry upstairs
into my study
argue with falling snow
my wall, a Havana skyscape
in another’s winter
firestorms abroad—wisps
of eucalypt smoke on TV
catch in my lungs
the radiator’s hiss: a reminder
of cool currents
Note:
hiemal: from the Latin, hiem/s, f. winter ; of or relating to winter, wintry.
These Hands
mapping this world outside
our thresholds, door jambs,
the veins of ordered things
step out beyond the frame
unlock myself into raw sleet
an icen image, I use
these hands to navigate
the city’s grace
what tearing can love repair,
my eyes ask the winter sky

Maureen Hynes is the author of seven books, five of which are poetry. Her latest collection is Sotto Voce (fall, 2019), recently longlisted for the upcoming 2020 Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Maureen’s first book of poetry, Rough Skin, won the League of Canadian Poets’ Gerald Lampert Award…
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