After a sleep Along with tangled hair To unravel yesterday’s pain It takes time.
Open eyelids slowly Remember Broken dreams bit by bit And stitch them up.
Fix the body, Lift earth with your feet, Words of glass wings That hurt heart Must be separated from body.
For survival, For living A sad string wrapped around body Let go like snake Shedding its skin.
After sleep, Find yourself, Know your path, destination and walk.
Johny Takkedasila is an Indian Telugu Poet, Writer, Novelist, Critic, Translator and Editor born on 08.06.1991 in Pulivendula, Andhra Pradesh, India. His literary journey, which began as a Telugu poet, has seen the publication of 26 books.
He has received numerous awards for his contributions. The Central Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for 2023 (National Award) was awarded to Vivechani, a criticism book in the Telugu language.
His poetry has been featured in many international anthologies, and his stories and poetry have found a place in international magazines. In addition to writing in Telugu, Hindi, and English, he is also involved in translation.
His literary style appears to aim at making readers contemplate and sensitize society through a compelling narrative. His other works Tiny Treasures, Puberty, Kattela Poyyi, Siva Reddy Kavitvam Oka Parisheelana, Akademi Aanimutyalu, Tella Rommu Nalla Rommu, Nadaka and Soochna were published by Ukiyoto Publishing House.
I have met a man who used to smile only, before he repented caught in guilt. I have met a man who used to be happy simply in vain, without ever explaining himself why the world bursts out in tears.
I have asked him how does he know the world, which seems upside down! And after every question I have received tens of answers that convinced me not!
So I have waited that one day he would ask himself, simply in vain a question made public! But I was afraid he would not reply, so I have run and in the silence, I have seen the world undressed, naked!
You will change
You will change what is the point of an evening that comes, and your shadow and the end of a day that leaves, when the sun stays distant and the moon does not draw near. The dusk stops for a while waiting to decay, the dusk falls in the darkness the horizons close in the meantime, the absences collapse in nothingness. Slowly even your shadow abandons you, and here comes the hour when there is no evening left! What the dusk is speaking today, everyone thinks is meant for tomorrow, a new dawn where you have to change and you will change no matter what!
Nikollë Loka was born in Sang of Mirdita on March 25th, 1960; graduated as a teacher at Luigj Gurakuqi University of Shkodra; Master’s degree in Pedagogy at the University of Tirana, Doctorate in History of Education at the University of Tirana. He worked as a teacher, principal in a high school and education inspector in the district of Mirdita, then a teacher in a high school in Tirana and a lecturer at Aleksandër Xhuvani University in Elbasan. Lives in Tirana. Author of nine poetic volumes in Albanian and three poetic volumes in Italian (two of which with co-authors); included in the anthology La Poesie contemporaine albanaise, L’Hartmattan publications, Paris 2024. In addition to Albanian, his poems have been published in Italian, English, French, German, Arabic, Romanian, Swedish and Mecedonian. Invited to television and radio shows dedicated to literature. Editor and reviewer of several literary works, mainly in poetry. Winner of several literary awards in the country and abroad. Member of several national and international literary associations. Ambassador of culture in the organization International Foundation Creativity Humanity (IFCH)-Morocco. Included in the Lexicon of Albanian writers 1501-2001, editions Faik Konica, Pristina 2003 and in the Encyclopedia of Italian language poets, Aletti Editore, Rome 2021, then in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Mirdita, editions Emal, Tirana 2021.
Jaime Perez crept up the fire escape as quietly as he could and stopped at the third floor. He leaned over the guard rail to the kitchen window that he had been told didn’t have a gate. He waited patiently to be sure that no one on the street had noticed him, while vapor from the cold steamed out of his mouth. He pressed his short, skinny, drug ravaged body against the wall until he felt ready, then he took a metal tool from his pocket and stealthily pried the window open. He couldn’t hear any sounds from the dark apartment, so he carefully slipped over the rail and climbed inside. The landlord had assured him that they didn’t own a dog, so although still alert, he began to relax. The landlord had also carefully instructed him how to place paper next to the pilot light of the stove, run a paper strip to the nearest inflammable material and ignite it so it would appear to be an accident. There was a cardboard cake box on a table next to the stove and he ran the strip of paper to the box. He paused and listened intently, his body a menacing hulk in the darkness, then greedily opened the box. It was some kind of pound cake, not his favorite, like chocolate or pineapple, but better than nothing. He broke off a chunk with a gloved hand and stuffed it in his mouth, crumbs dribbling on the floor.
The landlord had insisted that he not take anything, but a piece of cake didn’t count. Besides, the greedy pig would never know. Jaime needed a hit on the crack pipe and the sugar from the cake would settle his jangling nerves. He silently cursed the landlord for a moment. He knew why the landlord wanted this family out. Then he could renovate the apartment cheaply and triple the rent. When the tenants rejected what must have been a low offer and other pressures failed, the landlord sent for him. Jaime was known as ‘the torch’ to a few pitiless landlords on the lower east side, whose lust for profit at the expense of decency was aroused by gentrification. He could smell the paper by the pilot light smouldering, so he lit a match, put it to the middle of the paper strip and made sure it was burning both ways. Then he slid out the window to the fire escape and closed it behind him. As he hastily went down the metal steps, he thought: ‘To hell with those gringos. Let them burn. They forced my people out of the neighbourhood. Now they’ll get theirs.’
Some kind of noise brought Peter to the surface from a deep sleep. He groggily stretched, not sure what happened, then suddenly smelled smoke. He leaped up and dashed to the kitchen and saw the fire. The flames were high enough to keep him from reaching the sink with its flexible water hose, so he tore off his T-shirt and tried to smother the flames, but this only fanned them higher. He rushed back to the bedroom, pulled the covers off his wife and shook her arm. “What’s wrong?” Beth sleepily asked. “It’s a fire,” he yelled. “We’ve got to get the kids out.” She instantly snapped awake and took charge: “I’ll take Jen and you take Andy.” They hurried to the children’s bedroom, where Jennifer and Andrew were sound asleep. As the children gradually awakened, they wrapped them in their blankets and carried them out of the bedroom.
The smoke was rapidly spreading through the apartment. “Should I try to grab my wallet?” Peter asked. Beth looked around and quickly decided: “Let’s get the kids into the hall, then you can see if it’s safe to go back inside.” Flames were pouring out of the kitchen and the acrid smoke was blurring their vision. The children were wide awake now, frightened and crying. They made their way through the living room into the hallway that led to the front door. The room was rapidly filling with smoke and when Peter opened the door, smoke billowed into the hall. They paused at the head of the stairs and Peter looked back, considering if he should risk returning for his wallet and other valuables. Beth realized what he was thinking and said firmly: “No way you’re going in there.” He protested: “All our money and credit cards are in there, and our coats. It’s freezing outside.” She shook her head. “At least we’re not hurt. We’ll manage the rest.”
Officer Herminio Corrado was just carrying a container of coffee to his partner in the patrol car, when he saw the flames burst out of the window from a house down the block. He knocked on the hood to get his partner’s attention, pointed, then set off at a run. He moved faster than the usual officer’s cautious approach to danger, since fire couldn’t attack him from a distance and rapid response was essential. But he was already trembling and his insides were churning, because he was terrified of fire. He leaped up the steps of the building and knocked loudly on each door as he passed, shouting: “Police. Fire.” When he got to the third floor, he found a family of four at the landing and yelled: “Get those kids out now.” The man started mumbling something about losing all their possessions, but there was no time for that nonsense. “Get going. You can worry about your things later.” He gave the man a shove and watched him start downstairs, as the woman tugged him along.
The flames were shooting out of the apartment door and smoke was filling the hallway. He hesitated, afraid of being trapped by the fire, then started upstairs to warn the other tenants. He was halfway up the flight of stairs, when someone grabbed him from behind and he almost jumped out of his skin. He turned around and saw that it was a fireman in full protective gear, looking like a giant insect, ready to dip its proboscis. The fireman pulled up his mask and said: “I’ll take it from here.” Relief zoomed through his body. “Thanks, buddy.” He watched the alien figure hurry upstairs and thought: ‘Thank you, thank you. I don’t know how you do it, but better you than me.’ He quickly went downstairs and out of the building. His partner was waiting and congratulated him for his fast reaction. “You did good, Coro.” He nodded thanks, then confided; “I could never be a fireman. It scares the shit out of me. I’d rather face a gunman any day.” His partner grunted agreement. “Me too.”
Firefighter Eugene Jones was dozing in his seat, heading back to the firehouse after shopping for dinner at an expensive grocery. When the call came in they were only a few blocks from the scene, so it only took a minute or two to get there. He put on his gear as they went, holding on to the safety bar with one hand as they tore around the corner. They were the first truck on the scene and he adjusted his mask and rushed into the building, followed by the rest of the crew. Tenants were streaming out and he carefully forced his way upstairs through the panicky flow. He saw the cop ordering some tenants out, caught up to him on the stairs and told him that he’d take over. As the cop started downstairs, he thought: ‘I could never be a cop. I’d be terrified if someone was shooting at me.’ He shook his head at the distraction, then went and knocked on each door on the fourth floor. By this time, the commotion, sirens and smoke had awakened everybody and he calmly urged them to leave the building.
One of his partners had evacuated the fifth floor and came down and beckoned him to help check the apartment directly over the fire. The door was ajar and they entered warily, concerned with a sudden blaze through the floor. They knelt and felt the kitchen floor which was hot, but not incendiary. They carefully checked the walls, then the rest of the apartment and followed the same procedure in the hall. They didn’t find any indicators that the fire had spread upstairs. The smoke was already dissipating, so they went downstairs to the apartment where the fire started to help the rest of the crew. By the time they got there, the fire had been extinguished and they joined the search for any further hot spots. The kitchen and part of the main bedroom were thoroughly burned, but the destruction to the rest of the apartment was moderate. Gene studied the scene and thought the damage looked peculiar, but left it for the fire marshal to examine. He saw that he wasn’t needed, so he began to lug fire hose downstairs.
Peter was freezing in his pajamas and Beth wasn’t much warmer in the bathrobe she had managed to put on before their rapid escape. They had been able to snatch down coats for the children, so at least they were warm, but they were still traumatized by the sudden evacuation. The organized chaos that had followed the fire had shattered the once calm night for them. Neighbours had poured out of their houses, eager for the spectacle of disaster. Although disappointed that no one had jumped, a fiery meteor plunging to earth, or had been carried out blackened and smouldering, the crowd avidly gaped at the building, faces tense with expectation, still hoping for something titillating. The flashing red lights on the fire trucks and police cars cast incandescent glows on the savage spectators, who didn’t seem overly evolved from their ancient ancestors. Peter watched in utter bewilderment, unsure of what to do next. Beth sensed his confusion: “Ask someone if we can go back to our apartment, now that the fire is out.”
Peter looked around and saw a fireman coiling hose nearby and called to him: “Excuse me. Can we go back to our apartment now?” The fireman turned his head and looked at him tiredly. “Sorry, sir. The fire marshal has to inspect the premises to determine the cause of the fire. Then they have to check the building for safety and stability.” Peter’s voice was getting shrill. “When do you think we can get in there?” “Maybe tomorrow afternoon, depending on the damage.” “Can’t we just get some clothes? We’re freezing our butts off.” “That’s just not possible,” the fireman said. “But I can give you some blankets that’ll at least keep you warm.” The fireman walked to the truck and pulled out some gray, heavy wool blankets and handed them to Peter, who just stood there and asked dumbly: “What do we do now?” “Do you have somewhere to go for the rest of the night?” “No.” “Friends? Family?” “No.” “Why don’t you bring these blankets to your family,” the fireman said. “I’ll see if I can get someone to help you.” Peter shuffled back to Beth, lugging the blankets, dazed by the distressing events.
Gene saw the cop from the stairs leaning on his patrol car and walked over to him. “Hey, pal, how’re ya doin?” The cop’s face was streaked with soot, but he looked cheerful. “O.K. What about you?” “Good. We didn’t lose anybody.” They grinned at each other in the instant camaraderie that shared danger brings, especially to the uniformed services. The cop extended his hand. “I’m Coro.” Gene took his hand. “I’m Gene.” They stood there for a moment, reassured by the bond that helped them protect civilians. Coro said confidingly: “I almost pissed my pants.” Gene whispered: “When you’re a firefighter, they spray so much water on you that no one notices.” They laughed comfortably together. “Thanks, buddy,” Coro said. Gene smiled. “That’s O.K. Listen, there’s a family that doesn’t have anyplace to go.” “Where?” Gene pointed. “There.” Coro recognized them from the stairs. “I’ll see what I can do. Take care, buddy.” “You, too.” Gene waved cheerfully, then went back to coiling hose.
Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theatre director and worked as an art Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theatre director and worked as an art dealer when he couldn’t earn a living in the theatre. He has also been a tennis pro, a ditch digger and a salvage diver. His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway. His poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines and his published books include 40 poetry collections, 16 novels, 4 short story collections, 2 collection of essays and 8 books of plays. Gary lives in New York City.
You can find more of Gary’s work here on Ink Pantry.
it is a dead nativity that the burned, blind berries stand serried on the trees, and the scuttered, flittering fields in the rafters of the grail, and the angelus that floats in a spineless, furling sea, with the nailed crests of children raining on the dales, and the priesthoods raving madly, and the swell smell of snow within a wood, and the taraway stars warming down upon a wombless world, and the booming babies harpstung with the maidens whose wildness floams and scars in the bullring laid bereft by the oxened lady.
once, when the lord rode lowly on a cloud of bitter butter pure as molten lead, as the food of god was lovely, a flare from herald angels fell, where, roving gaily, the scrolls of fire burned up their beds and tore across the crucifixion’s cells; and there, in the sun-slicked fields, burning then as now, the tyrelit, crazy isles of jacob and his sandalled ladder roared and rose and fell from east to west, across a fairied, occidental smile that combed the crypted yards for angelled drums and banged back dearly, with the cattle purring and the rousering cats alight and the scuffled birds and the spheres of music clearly varnishing into the beards of night. Oh, the maids of molten minions lunged in red delight!
and the lord set forth and strayed in his mused career: in the city marshes, levees, and the banging nights on the hill, he strayed and shaped a roman rhythm from his ovum-pealing hands as time, ignobling, bouldered up the graves. but only the wind sang.
the hunger of the birds was thrilled into the swording spine, and the waters, crossing, crushed upon the holy lungs and brought the curs of eden into nether, knocking crimes that none could spring. No, to deliver, to be slaved, in losing life, the lord above must always seem as careless as a warbler! how the mazy, granite grave crashes round the mind and breaks its native scheme blows maniacally back against the world in nave and yields no prayer
and the minstrels, who, once flowing in their regalled song, pared the ravens down with the runes of open love, and the weals on the winds of the glowering and strong who, once certain, aspired to hand in glove, and the passion of the floaming ecstatic scream that hires the word above; none, nobody here nor elseways, could save nor shore nor restore the love of jesus to the buds, nor the war of loving to the grievance of the good. but the red wings are raised and the carved limbs of spiders throe and flock – webs of age on moving stones are spun and always spurned and the cancer in the oat of sin is defrocked; and the heavens, burning, furnish into fens the simple words of immortal stains –
Jim Bellamy was born in a storm in 1972. He studied hard and sat entrance exams for Oxford University. Jim has won three full awards for his poems. Jim has a fine frenzy for poetry and has written in excess of 22,000 poems. Jim adores the art of poetry. He lives for prosody.
You can find more of Jim’s work here on Ink Pantry.
Sitting alone on a bench as fog covers the lake hidden, lost, below.
Hearing a lone goose honk in the sky still too far away to see.
Feeling an October breeze against my face while awaiting sunrise over the horizon.
I smell newly mowed grass and breathe so deeply green salivates in my mouth.
The bench creaks in relief as I stand and wander through my mystic sphere rolling somewhere else.
Between White
Dressed in white between a white umbrella and white shoes the woman strolls beside her golden retriever tethered together by a black leash.
Like a gossamer-winged dragonfly alight on a fishing line draped into lake waters hoping all fish are fully sated when night falls upon them all.
Fence Slaying
Tree trunk falls across the wooden fence slaying the wooden soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder in attention formation ordered to hold the line under any circumstances.
No need for a firing squad for disobeying orders as slats lie splintered on the field of grass like bleached bones from a dead-cow carcass.
Eye Play
Like an eye closed to a slit pretending sleep but seeing all, the shutter closes out the street and reveals nothing inside.
The stucco wall wrinkles cracks along its façade and permanent dimples dent the stone like a great grandmother weathering the next generation curious if she sees at all
Upward Guides
Potted plants guide the stairs upward like the blind woman’s cane tapping one, two …
At the ninth tap turn right immediately before a tangle of greenery brushes like spider web across your face.
The door awaits the final tap, the entrance passed the plants’ gauntlet now swept by stems cheering in wind.
Diane Webster‘s work has appeared in El Portal, North Dakota Quarterly, New English Review, Verdad and other literary magazines. She had a micro-chap published by Origami Poetry Press in 2022, 2023 and 2024. One of Diane’s poems was nominated for Best of the Net in 2022. Diane retired in 2022 after 40 years in the newspaper industry.
You can find more of Diane’s work here on Ink Pantry
Maybe it’s because October nights on the East Coast can still be sultry; it was still reasonably early, 10:30; us three in our usual semi-stupefied lethargy got a rush of energy, decided to take a walk over to Fresh Grocer at 40th & Walnut, get some grub, often in short supply at 4325. I got French bread, Mary got vegetables for stir fry, for Abby too, & as we walked home what awaited us was little we didn’t want. We were too stoned to be self- consciously anything, but you can bet we were stared at, with our symmetrical features, sculpted cheekbones, & yet West Philly had glitter all over it because everybody hit the street simultaneously, we walked, levitated with everyone, & everyone levitated with us—
the house party a few nights later was beyond levitational. Every young painter in Philly crowded into the lived-in, yellow lit kitchen to do whiskey shots, & drove a bunch of points home about how the city was now working together, firing off on all cylinders at once, even as Mary abstained, as usual, from alcohol, which took her nervous system & trashed it. The painters were obliging about the poet’s participation, as laughter ricocheted into the grassy backyard area, with its rusty fence, small concrete plots, placing us in a city space with real green in it, even as trees began to yellow, & as the warm weather held. When the door to Mary’s room shut an hour later, we took the starlight in with us, painted & owned it.
Adam Fieled is a writer based in the Philadelphia area. His books include Equations, Opera Bufa, Cheltenham, Apparition Poems, and Beams. A magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he also edits P.F.S. Post.
In the murky hours are the murderers, freshly convened, flippant and fickle, with whines and snivels.
Malevolently intent on revising the rules, and lopping off the light. Deeply resentful, always resorting to cunning, enabling complicity in their crime.
Crushing an incalculable number of vexing secrets set for the future to be told or heard. Their annihilation all enacted with feverish haste.
A sacrificial onslaught of hostility, the appointment of a shadowing stab, leaves them rapidly breathing around the stench of bloodshed from wounds to be overcome, leaving graves shaped like bulbous domes hidden under silk.
They try to beg meaning from haphazard blackbird dreams that burst into flames upon awakening.
They hone mosaic transmissions, coded in sombre shades within the gloom and seep of murk, encrypted to discredit legends.
When all is torn, crushed, spilled, when fume and reek have become the prize sought, it is the poets’ job to exhale inky breath across paper landscapes, to bring back life to thought, to find the almighty past man’s destruction.
Express Mark
In sunlight, we pass through gates, hung in the middle of rush-clad walls, gates which once bore the bruise of broken door hinges.
Everyone observing stones cut into concrete images, brimming with geocentric activity.
The once imposed form of empty vessels, strewn about long ago, currently to be filled with a bioluminescent blue-violet thick jet of light, unconfounded, in its aim toward an express mark of interwoven destinies.
There’s apparent understanding hoped for, and to a considerable extent, we relish the recovery of our strength, after the feel of shipwrecked bodies, and we will complete a sojourn rather than be held in complete confinement.
All due to the impressive profusion of one large empire of artists.
I Paid A Visit
I paid a visit to a person of certain origins, who, after hearing the clarion call, became determined to get past vague language, and dip us into a charming melody, using an eloquent speech.
From the brushing of clouds comes that melody, an etched rhapsody, once confined by a back door locked, where a few of its remnants were left on a stoop, the entire symphony now recovered..
The majority of those troubled and alarmed by the liability of war, by the havoc of battle, those clad with a doctrine of fear, those who have theorized some popular notion of who is to blame for the catastrophes, to them goes this speech.
Live to be better off emotionally, with a higher sense of people’s’value, than corruptible vicars, sultans, chancellors, and counts, causing formidable misfortunes.
Live to hear more tender strums within all seasons than all the above who forget the names, by sterile fail, of all the living and the dead.
Live to burn hotter in the quest to cleanse one’s soul than these short-sighted, who will trade music and science for occupational malevolence.
Let them not be those who lead the charge. That being said, you now know what we need to do to preserve the peace, and win the song of the world.
Linda Imbler’s poetry collections include nine published paperbacks: Big Questions, Little Sleep First Edition, Big Questions, Little Sleep Second Edition; Lost and Found; Red Is The Sunrise; Bus Lights; Travel Sight; Spica’s Frequency; Doubt and Truth; A Mad Dance; and Twelvemonth.. Soma Publishing has published her four e-book collections, The Sea’s Secret Song; Pairings, a hybrid of short fiction and poetry; That Fifth Element; and Per Quindecim. Examples of Linda’s poetry and a listing of publications can be found at lindaspoetryblog.blogspot.com
The sky remained closed all day and without much success we invoked Satan. None of us knew how, so to pass the time until we could start drinking in earnest we talked about people of old and how they were crushed by the elements, the planets in their eternal orbits, the moon in its orbit and the sun that rose time and again, shining on us and then setting again, each time at a different time, boys we were, almost men.
Manual for cleaning a bunch of sprat
With a wooden handcart we brought bales of wood shavings and sawdust to the smokehouse where my uncles hung herring and mackerel on skewers between blackened brick walls over smouldering fires.
Herring swam in dense schools beyond the Dogger Bank, mackerel closer to the coast. Boats brought the catch ashore in wooden barrels for further processing in the semi-dark shadow realm that since disappeared like its ghosts.
Winter in Holland
Displaced trains, orphaned rails, travellers lost, the despair of forgotten platforms, drivers hibernate, gates frozen solid, ticket machines of no further use, announcements once announced fail to materialize, no one can get a signal here, everything is snowed over and wild animals play on abandoned tracks throughout the whole of Holland.
After the storm
On the beach, the high-water mark, Unrecognizable fragments connected in a deathly grey tangle under a sky swept clean. Seagulls. Some movement left in the surf, remnants of storm and gusts of wind extinguish in the white breaking of waves as far as the eye can see skeletons of ships thrown on the beach, sea monsters, shells, carbide white as snow, planks eaten by the salt seawater. Ship’s wood. Flotsam.
Enno de Witt is a published Dutch author and poet, an artist and musician, webmaster and editor. For him, writing poetry is a sheer necessity, like breathing, sleeping, drinking and eating. His poetry is founded on the bedrock of the classics, Dutch as well as international, and revolves around the Eternal Questions, often using imagery pertaining to his younger years, growing up on the seashore amongst wild heretics.
You can find more of Enno’s work here on Ink Pantry.
I was ok before you came, I was worse off after you left,
because you passed so quickly, but you left behind the thunder of your heels, the swift swing of your neck,
your mood-swings like the moon-tides, like pollen in the spring air, so pervasive, everywhere like seaweed under the waves.
Back then it all made me sick, but not now. I’m more sick now than you are gone. So very gone.
I have to chose my poison, because it’s hard to be sick and lovesick on the same page.
Albert Rodriguez is an American writer. He received an Associate of Arts in Writing & Literature from Borough of Manhattan Community College. He is currently working on his first novel and other smaller writing projects. When he is not writing he works as a handyman repairing old Manhattan buildings. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and kids.
The title of this anthology, published by Dempsey and Windle under their VOLE imprint, is taken from lines by Dylan Thomas: “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower / Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees / Is my destroyer.” The anthology contains 50 poems by 50 poets comprising three prize winning poems, three highly commended poems and 44 shortlisted poems from the VOLE Books Winter / Spring Poetry Competition 2024.
In her introduction, the competition judge, Adele Ward, says that she looked for originality, subjects not written about by any other entrant, ones that stood out for their accomplishment and obvious expertise.
The poems in this anthology cover a wide variety of subjects ranging from the changing of the seasons to a potter moulding a vase, from a parakeet that has flown far from its home to contrails that ‘marble the sky….in a penumbra of dawn and dusk.’ Most notable for me, though, were the poems on less familiar subjects: Denni Turp’s poem on orthotics, Paul McDonald’s poem on asthma attacks, Derek Sellen’s poem on sleep paralysis, Cathy Whittaker’s poem on DNA testing and Ray Diamond’s poem about the man who didn’t walk on the moon. All of these poems yielded far more than what might have been expected by their titles. McDonald’s poem, for example, has at its core the importance of communication and the need to choose one’s words carefully in a real emergency while Whittaker’s poem turns into an elegy for familial loss due to the holocaust and then widens out to include all people who have suffered loss due to conflict in war.
Michael Farry’s approach to his poem ‘Sleep’, seen through the lens of punctuation, is particularly striking. Here is the final stanza:
Lately you have found the value of inserting an afternoon comma a soft pause, a splice in the series of conjunctions, interjections and moods as you negotiate the subject-verb agreement on the way towards the full stop, period.
Richard Wheeler’s powerful poem ‘Fragments of War’ hits home with its fast-paced lines and emphatic final line which signals the futility of it all. The lack of a full-stop at the end, as well as throughout the entire poem, questions whether humanity will ever know a time when wars will cease on Earth. Michael Tanner’s ‘Flower of War’, which follows on from the previous poem, not only shows the care that has been taken in arranging the order in which the poems appear in this anthology but also reveals the subject from a different perspective, that of survival. The rosebay willow herb which ‘thrives in bombed / And burnt-out cities’ is the botanical equivalent of the phoenix rising from the ashes. The final stanza takes the poem to another level:
See how these orphans roam The blackened stones of home, Stooping to pick The tall-stemmed flower For mothers never known.
Olivia Bell’s ‘War, page five’ is equally powerful in its unique take from the editor’s desk. The final stanza challenges us about where our priorities truly lie:
We sent the pages at ten past midnight, a celebrity’s teeth gleaming on the front. I took the night bus home, wondering how I had ever believed that all lives could be worth the same.
A notable feature that most of the poems have in this anthology is the strong final stanza which often adds something new or takes the poem to a different level. Sue Wallace-Shaddad’s poem ‘Brought Back to Life’ (after an embroidery by Maggie Hamilton) describes the work of a conservator repositioning ‘the threads / of its previous life, the colours / which shone with spring fervour / one hundred years ago’ and ends with the words:
I stroll in the garden of Maggie’s imagination – bring the outside in.
That idea of the needle being pulled through the embroidery is the add-on that we take away from this final line.
Stylistically, there are a number of poems which adhere to strict poetic forms: a ghazal, a sonnet, a ‘reverse’ poem and a tritina, the latter being a poem of 10 lines arranged as three tercets with one final line using a specific scheme of end words.
This anthology offers the reader poems on a wide variety of subjects presented in an original and accomplished way. The force that through the green fuse fired them into being shows that poetry still has the ability to speak to us in ways that are fresh and invigorating. Brief biographies of all the poets are given at the end.
You can find more of Neil’s work here on Ink Pantry.
Neil Leadbeater was born and brought up in Wolverhampton, England. He was educated at Repton and is an English graduate from the University of London. He now resides in Edinburgh, Scotland. His short stories, articles and poems have been published widely in anthologies and journals both at home and abroad. His publications include Librettos for the Black Madonna (White Adder Press, 2011); The Loveliest Vein of Our Lives (Poetry Space, 2014), Finding the River Horse (Littoral Press, 2017), Punching Cork Stoppers (Original Plus, 2018) River Hoard (Cyberwit.net, Allahabad, India, 2019), Reading Between the Lines (Littoral Press, 2020) and Journeys in Europe (co-authored with Monica Manolachi) (Editura Bifrost , Bucharest, Romania, 2022). His work has been translated into several languages. He is a member of the Federation of Writers Scotland and he is a regular reviewer for several journals including Quill & Parchment (USA), The Halo-Halo Review (USA), Write Out Loud (UK) and The Poet (UK). His many and varied interests embrace most aspects of the arts and, on winter evenings, he enjoys the challenge of getting to grips with ancient, medieval and modern languages.
