Poetry

prophets have retired so do not wait for yours to come to you ~ Ashraf Fayadh (translated by Mona Kareem)In our country, a prince, Dara Shikoh, had...

Old man, you surface seldom. / Then you come in with the tide's coming / When seas wash cold, foam- / Capped: white hair, white beard, far-flung, / A dragnet, rising, falling, as waves / Crest and trough. Miles long [...]

Andy Armitage's pamphlet is among a number of new releases from the poetry press Half-Moon Books, which is based in Otley, West Yorkshire, where...

With her eyes closed she has been staring at the lamps on the ceiling for days.By now they must look like Sufi dervishes whirling in white to...

First published in the May 1960 issue of The London Magazine (Volume 7, No. 5).Through purblind night the wiper Reaps a swathe of water

For Najwan DarwishA lucky three-year-old Is Saher* Abu NamousIf Gaza didn’t explode The world would have Known nothing of himNow he is all in reports One among the...

Many times I passed by your house On my way to see my grandmotherI paused before the large iron gates Expecting to catch a glimpse of...

SnowboundCarriages lit and still between the drifts ... With each flake it took on a new form, the city they seemed exiled from --- almost a sad,...

OctoberPizza bruschetta gold dress Rioja Autumn is here and Winter forgotten Walking through town arm in arm with a lover Moon in the sky and leaves good...

There’s a stream by the Avon ward Where I stand to watch the water flow And unwind the whirlpools of my mind When it’s dark I let...

An archaeologist in Greece unearths Aristotle’s Tomb; others dispute the evidence. If Aristotle’s ideas are consulted, the archaeologist Needs to prove, the tomb’s where he claims it, Not...

They live inside the warmth of typing fingers, inside the ghostly glass of hidden years you wanted to implant inside this week. The doors and windows to...

Michael O’Neill (1953-2018) was a very gifted poet and a brilliant literary critic, who was Professor of English at the University of Durham, where...

Ben Aleshire makes his living as a travelling poet, writing poems on his typewriter for whatever his readers can spare as a donation, a...

  No map traces the street Where those two sleepers are. We have lost track of it. They lie as if under water In a blue, unchanging light, The French...

IThe Lagan - a muddy silt river - Barrel of roll-tide, ribs of clean branches Poke up water jutting. On the towpath I glean a warm wet...

On the wicker chair I wait for the duvet’s rise: you’re just a mound, breath, as I worry over why, again, you’ve overslept. Could it be early...

The air has cleared today,Over the city, and in my head,I see the trees breatheThe invisible greenness of air,I feel the taste of sunlightOn...

Woman “It’s easy, impossible, hard, worth trying.” ~ Wislawa Szymborska, “Portrait of a Woman” (1976)She is intimately attached To night and day. Only...

Evening LightBrave bat in a bowler hat Blood shot eyes question What time does this light Depart?The light descends elsewhere Its shadow rising here The bat changes into an...

Last HeronAs the last heron goes, rooks fall from the sky like old black rags to carpet the new-laid field.Six days now, six days and nights without...

Briony WillisWITCH WITCH, by Rebecca Tamás, Penned in the Margins, pp. 119, £9.99. (paperback) In her latest collection, WITCH, Rebecca Tamás explores the triumphs and oppression, the...

The producers decided things were getting slow so I caught you with Arabella at the charity regatta, delivered a flute of strawberry champagne to your blazer, a...

Michael HenryJoan Howson's Cottage This is Black Rock Sands that ............my parents walked to from their honeymoon hideaway. Those are the footprints they left ............on the sand. That is the...