Today’s choice

Previous poems

Claire Miller

 

 

 

I sit on the grass and listen to the earth purring

 

rose is thirsty
rose senses water
rose root rummages in the earth
rose root punctures lung and frontal lobe
rose stem is a green straw sucking
rose stem sways like a tail
rose thorn is a claw in my jumper
rosebud squints in midday sun
rose flower opens to trill its song
rose stamen twitches like a whisker
rose is miracle to witness
then rose slumps against the trellis
rose breathing slows, exhale of petals
rose pales and withers
but rose whispers don’t worry
rose will be back next summer

 

Claire Miller is an ecopoet based in Nottingham. Her poems are published in Magma, Structo, Firewords, The Letters Page, and on a big wall in Nottingham. She is currently working towards her first pamphlet. Follow her progress on Instagram: @clairemillerpoet

Sylvia Banham

Pigeons have invaded the garden, two then four, then a flock.
They roost in the apple tree to nest, reconnoitre or mate
 
ignore my sorties to deter them and shit without stint
on patio and herb bed, foul lovely hyssop and thyme.

Gordon Vells

Impotent in family life and ineffectual at work,
sometimes he would spend a full quarter-hour
just circulating the mini-roundabout on his moped,
dizzy from the power of blocking everyone else.

Patrick Wright

i protest     say how when i’m gone i’d like to rest before the choice to return & go through 
all this again     you sigh as though that’s absurd & endings are just endings     we’re mulch 
& nothing but endless fucking 

Francis de Lima

Oh London. U useless city. Map to

                                                                        nowhere land. Tight stretch 

                                                                        open eye. The underground metal. 

The night tube. The railway. Smog

Over coaltrip. The presence

                                                                          Of machine upon machine. U

Miriam Swales

When I was 12, I knew the weight of a human head.
8 Heads in a Duffel Bag (a bit of dark comedy).
It grew from there. The curiosity. The calculations.