Category: How Words Play

  • ‘tree is real silver’ published Poetry Ireland Review (N°138)

      Tree is real silver I. Birds tremble there alighting — (lighting) its stained glass recedes and within each bright ening light ening shape the song of a bird embeds a garnet— Each red-feathered song pewtering silver -ground on lazuli II. I see their (a) -lighting. They leaf the tree in the absence of bud,…

  • “Limerence” and other poems by Palmer Smith

    limerence i loved a somnambulist we’re like a No(thing), a No(body) two no-bodies equal Somebody, right? (re)-read my words bottle of tequila, all the limes all the girls you have loved, shaken up in this cup i lovingly stirred you stumble on red oak floors ceiling, a map of london lon-don-ing you illicit, (i)llicit you,…

  • “I don’t belong here’ by Fizza Abbas

    I don’t belong here I love chipped crayons, they tell me colours can come in different forms: pitch-black darkness can become the reincarnation of red, moonlight can subdue the proud ribbon-like body of the river, wise men need not have a white beard. I often whisper to the wavelength, ask her to, once, and for…

  • “Time” by Fidel Hogan Walsh and Julie Corcoran

    2020, Memories Blinded in a winter’s dread no prophet foresaw. Spring’s new life erupted into a chaos of fear. Desolation replaced the warmth of a hug. Children banished from our everyday lives! Ahh, the blessings — a swift journey home to the unexpected happiness under one roof. Chatter, laughter — a family enduring dark days…

  • Poems from ‘My Name Is’ by Polina Cosgrave

    Starship The blackest of holes, the hottest of suns, the craziest captain alive. Surrender to none, be gentle to some, stay tough as the skies collide. The milkiest way is over my head. They’re chasing me mile after mile. This starship is mine, try and catch me, I said. This marvellous starship is mine. Self-portrait…

  • Poems from ‘Alchemy’ by Fiona Perry

    Postpartum You are as naked as a shucked oysterso, my breasts are slashed and raining pearlsfor you, my suckling child. The universehas too many doors. A terrifying flowerunfurled overnight to tell me if they tookyou away or carted you off to dielike pink tender veal. I would be preparedto stand on my own mother’s shouldersto…

  • Poems from “Venus in Pink Marble” by Gaynor Kane

      Window weather The Icelanders have a word that means just that.A murky day that you know is betterenjoyed from the comfort of a window seat;soft mizzle cleansing leaves shiny and bright. When webs become crystal dreamcatchers,or perfect drops form on the telephone linesand slide slowly down like the oilon the wire of the indoor…

  • “In Rivers” and other poems by Alison McCrossan

    Sunray Here you cast your dazzling eye through clouds ruptured on surging waters, where in winds on a mission across skies born of voids words were loaded: let me out; crowns of heaving leaves spilled trees, turned them upside down, a splay of tangled guts, and spat out the despair of the years in a…

  • “Safer Distances” and other poems by Jennifer Horgan

    If you were able you’d go upstairs with me. Dream your hips poised mum jug-like dipped towards the sun. In some afternoon’s shuttered light we’re choosing fabrics to be hung. Your style, your certainty, tugs the rope of a French church bell. You’re young again, words held on winding steps in France. In this dream…

  • “Trees Walking” and other poems by Joan Mazza

    Blue Moon So bright tonight, woods glow, as if some rare magic is near, orchestra building to a swell, crescendo followed by abrupt silence, pierced by an animal’s anguished squeal, sound that sends my heart thumping though my dog doesn’t bark. Imagination with a dash of desperation for a happening, some quickening. Stultifying summer heat,…