Poets & Poems
Magpies
By Joelistics
I dreamt I was a thousand feet tall and I could see all the way to Sydney
And I could smell the desperation and the fear and the excitement
And ...
All of the lights
By Joelistics
All of the lights
All of the lines
All of the liars
All of the shadows
All of the shapes
All of the sirens
All of the minutes
All of ...
The Disappearing
The Disappearing has been redeveloped and we invite you to submit your poems about fading and disappeared places and spaces. Explore now »
Donovan’s Glasses
By David Brooks
after Lewis Morely, ‘Donovan, musician, London’ (1965)
At 12.30, half an hour late, Donovan Leitch comes in
for his photo-shoot with Lewis
wearing his crazy floral shirt. I’ve ...
Snow Country
By David Brooks
after Spencer Finch, ‘56 Minutes (after Kawabata), Spring’ (2004)
A woman’s eye floated up before him. He almost called out... But he
had been dreaming, and when he came ...
The Tableland
By David Brooks
after Ian Dodd, ‘Mirror Image’ (1975)
High on the tableland,
in a shallow valley, by the entrance
to an abandoned diamond mine
amongst discarded machinery and
empty oil drums, a ...
I Grew Up A Shadow Girl, With A Man Outlined Inside Me
By Maddie Godfrey
(Content warning: references self-harm)
When I was fifteen in a toilet cubicle next to Talia,
I exclaimed IT’S HERE with my school skirt skimming
my ankles, white socks with ...
habitus
By Melinda Smith
a hand spread on a hand -
starfish meat on starfish meat
in the old wide belly of the sea.
breathe. life is very long.
even with a hand
spread on ...
Double-You
By Melinda Smith
The O of her flashbulb, her
beehive (her eye, her ear).
A lenswoman.
A glow of white t-shirt, bright
socks, a halo, a blur,
a dusty penumbra.
Akimbo
By Melinda Smith
I came to your image pool, seeking. I stood
at the lip. I gazed, and dipped, and snapped,
and bore away with me a woman, in a wardrobe,
in a ...
in/sight
By Melinda Smith
I see you, looking. You are breathing, a little
heavily. I see you, gazing, at the pooled shadow
in her collarbone; at her armpit, its intimate tuft.
You are licking ...
Minerva
By Saba Vasefi
My daughter's pencil case
Is full of my future.
As if they were my dreams,
She covers her exercise books
And carries them to school
Brings them home
Damaged ...
The Portable Home
By Saba Vasefi
Once, I went with the wolf to the desert
to take back honey from the bear
but in town my two eyes counted
only for one. At school
the only ...
Segregation
By Saba Vasefi
We weren’t supposed to return—
No way to gather up again
The kiss that fell from our chapped
Lips as we fled.
Nothing
Is supposed to happen
In Autumn ...
A TABLE IS A FLAT SURFACE WITH LEGS –––CE N’EST PAS UNE PIPE
By Ali Whitelock
[The sighted woman asks the blind
man, how do you see beauty? The
blind man replies, In the same way
you close your eyes & imagine
taking a warm bath, how ...
‘and the angel of the lord appeared to him and said to him, "the lord is with you, O mighty man of valor"' [judges 6:12]
By Ali Whitelock
her eyes are *blootered / swollen like the
plums that were not in the ice box / but kneedeep
by the river rotting in torrential scottish
rain / they were bruised & slimy / burst ...
i leaned my head against yours
By Ali Whitelock
i leaned
my
head
against yours
as though my forehead were a mouth i could share
secrets through. i was never a good person though
somehow i am surrounded by ...