Monthly Archives: October 2016
Karen Hodgson-Pryce
A feathered ploy two worlds tug at warring sleeves one see-see-sees: open the back door you can listen while you tap but this is voyeuristic bait not content with ears and slack insists on eyes and joy deny it voice … Continue reading
David Subacchi
CRAIGLAIS Man it was that gouged blue stone From your rugged slopes Taking it by horse drawn tram To build seawalls And adorn prominent buildings Leaving you wounded ; A hazard to those seeking Only to walk and climb. And … Continue reading
Sally Long
Iona The coracle is our mother, she has carried us for eight days, her skin protecting from sea by day, the lashing of the wind at night till aided by the waves’ contractions she gives birth, propelling us onto the … Continue reading
Phil Wood
Dry Stone Enough throughstones for repair work, two lines of face and coping ready, plenty of hearting in buckets. Kate waits. Then skips across the field. She’s shaping air with hands again, her yellow frock a summer’s day. Now it’s … Continue reading
Kitty Coles
Matryoshka I. The bulwarks you use to glaze your tenderness, plating the smallness, making it secure, the billboards hanging: ‘How elegant are my ramparts!’ II. The seven veils of flesh, its scattered furs, wrapping the gift, its cryptic, jittery contents. … Continue reading
Julian Dobson
Blood moon Between Orion and the Plough a blink of wing-lights. We watch our shadow tip across the moon. In valleys unwanted light puddles, spreads. On Stanage Edge the breeze is fluid as family, the glittered sky brittle as dried … Continue reading
Miki Byrne
Jimmy-the Croak. I still love Jimmy-the-Croak. Though he’s a frog—a brass one, hinged at his poop-point. So that the top half of him swings back in a body-shaped yawn and when closed, leaves him dished and lidded. When I was … Continue reading
John Quinn
HUE AND SKY Up there are seven heavens. Blue skies are jolly with lashings of good cheer and cream like the Famous Five going down to Devon. Yellow is unrelated and gets away with not really being yellow but has … Continue reading
The Open Mouse 