after Kait Quinn The girl, the husk powdery to touch, frightened of fear and the secrets it keeps. The awe in my eyes when I see you, stitched in the elegant bow of willow trees. Love and beauty, the kingdom of frost melting into mid-july, the childhood of us. The begging, words thick with dust, … Continue reading What are you letting go of?
she meant sometimes the trees seem to whisper every name but yours, and the bluetits titter as the sun rises and sets each day as if mocking your inability to make anyone smile; or the lack of warmth you feel even within your own bones. She meant sometimes love is too short and too sudden; … Continue reading When Sara Bareilles sung ‘she is lonely most of the time’:
My mind, the corner I have kept for you has become a shrine I no longer wish to visit yet heed and pray before each night. My prayers are not gifts nor sweet nothings; they are not even prayers. They are misshapen thoughts, ounces of love without weight. There is nothing for me here anymore … Continue reading Ghosts in black coats
Moonlight shimmers across cobbled courts and Notre-Dame stands stoic in silence; omniscient and omnipotent, stained-glass eyes watching the Seine move beneath the twinkle of stars, the Eiffel Tower and the streets. Men with roses harangue tourists, but we are all seventeen and this is no time to love like strangers at midnight, our bellies full … Continue reading Paris, 2011.
after Jericho Brown When people ask when I first began to write, I think of the walls I first ran my greasy fingers along. The homes I would never call my own but would be called home by everyone who knew me. I knew the walls though - the peeling paint and the damp. I … Continue reading A poem is a gesture toward home
First published by honeyfire literary magazine. I think of his fists. Swallowing air and silent goodbyes; tiny screams of forgiveness. I think of how soft they first appeared - builder’s hands which knew when to crumble - until I remember the holes in the doors, splintered plasterboard left changed by furious winds; a sullen … Continue reading Holes left in open doors
First published on Emotional Alchemy Magazine. Thoughts pervade, on par with cymbal clatters and the dishes you’ve left for too many nights and the potato starch has attached itself, limb by limb, to the pan. One dream circles, once and round again. In the middle of a day - a daydream noon - I find … Continue reading Alice in the bath
This is Reynolds’ third chapbook and it is clear to see her writing gets better with every collection. I said this after reading Mislilac but the growth present in Another Day in Paradise is palpable. Reynolds’ work has always been raw, truthful and visceral but in this collection she interwove cutting intelligence, vulnerability and aching … Continue reading Review of Another Day in Paradise, H. M. Reynolds
I Write, Therefore I Am is the debut poetry collection from Alexis Mitchell and documents the journey she has been on since she was sixteen. Thus, as the collection progresses, Mitchell’s poetry develops; as a writer she finds a home in her words and it was a pleasure to witness this growth. Undeniably, Mitchell does … Continue reading Review of I Write, Therefore I Am, Alexis Mitchell
Konstantin by Tom Bullough is a moving and an evocative tale of ambition, adversity and the beauty of science. Spanning from his childhood to the birth of his first child, we follow Konstantin’s life and the moments which shaped him; which propelled his desire to unpick the seemingly impossible task of travelling into space. Bullough’s … Continue reading Review of Konstantin, Tom Bullough
