‘Newcastle Morning, Early September’ by Tracey Pearson Had ya horses man, the day’s in no rush to start,Mrs Kelly’s shooing next door’s cat oot the yard. Morning still wears its dressing gown,tied tight round the midriff,grey and downy, soft and fluffy, Tyneside foggy. September sighs in the back lanes,bairns and mams bicker their way to school – If I’ve telt yi once, I’ve telt yi a thoosand times,don’t poke ya sister in the eye. The weather changes when the bairns go back,baking taties on offer at the Community Grocery,a 45p tea, for me and Olenka, a Ukrainian refugee. Meet the Poet! Tracey Pearson is a poet and flash fiction writer from Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Her work has been published in print anthologies, magazines and online. Tracey’s recent writing appears in Poetry Wales, Dreich, Culture Matters and Visual Verse, and is forthcoming in Briefly Write. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading...
Translation Tuesday – Japanese Poetry It’s almost November. The nights are cold, crisp, and brutal here in the North-East – but the skies are glorious, and the colours… Oh! Join me for a cuppa whilst I share today’s autumnal offering: translated pieces from a volume called Japanese Poetry Now, remade into English by Thomas Fitzimmons. Enjoy! Rue Collinge shares pieces from Japanese Poetry Now, 1971, trans. Thomas Fitzimmons Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading...
‘Experience’ by Gareth Culshaw There was a time inside a lettuce leaf I found the crinkles enjoyable to walk. I traipsed songs lost in headphones found trees upside down in winter. Heard birds in the yawn of a cat and caught a train for a bus for a hike. It led me to this, a place of rock and stone. Nothingness sits outside a window until you leave the vehicle and walk. Things appear in the nostril before your hands have left the crust. Your soup stays on the lips, cola burps a crow, and crisps wear away fence posts. But each walk brings you closer, closer to the life you live inside. The life you live before you found this place in the crunch of a carrot one salad afternoon. Watching a sun biscuit-dunk into a mountain wait for the warmth to leave you behind then see your fingerprints smudged on the moon, the end of your nose. Meet the Poet! Gareth Culshaw lives in North Wales. He has 4 poetry collections, most recent by Hendon Press called Memory Tree. He is a winner of Backlash Best Book Award 2022. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading...
‘Climate’ by Mike Doherty That yellowing mould of surrender Like soft vows Subsides on the kerb as a light wind makes the leaves Skittish With those most recently released from the bough Falling through shafts of sunlight and forming, casually A duvet against the stone, against the cold of a coming night This heat has made the trees distress and shrug off their ornaments Those leaves Fluttering dependents in need of drink and so they are Expendable. It is the rule of law. Long grass warped into dry and brittle threads Susceptible to fire. All these indicators of change Gather here in plain sight to form a queue of warning signs Do Not Proceed. One Way Only. Danger of Death Another turning point goes blind to history All the common sights forgot and nothing left But burning twigs Meet the Poet! Mike Doherty says: “I have always tried to express myself. School reports exhort you to “try harder”. Poetry is the only medium I have found to reach into the corners of my soul and shed some light. It’s never easy and often not terribly good. But, I love it.” Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading...
‘Canals of the Back Streets’ by Martin Potter Glints in the city sun andTown-breeze ripples rainbowTouches in the oily filmRunning behind and under-streetBrick-sided trough canalsFloated industry wall-screenedBut inconspicuous door-gapsDisguise steps down to the tightTowpaths that shelve overThe patient loitering watersDown-flow interrupted Waiting on sleeper leversTo be wrenched hinge-swingCirculation rebootedVeins in need of dredgingDrear-grime to dark heart’s blood Meet the Poet! Martin Potter (https://martinpotterpoet.home.blog) is a British-Colombian poet and academic, based in Manchester, and his poems have appeared in Acumen, The French Literary Review, Eborakon, Ink Sweat & Tears, The Poetry Village, and other journals. His pamphlet In the Particular was published by Eyewear in December, 2017. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading...