by Kate Birch | Jan 17, 2017 | 2016 poetry picks, Blogs & News, prizes and awards
We take one last lingering look back to 2016 with our final ‘picks’ for the year. Both Christmas poems, they affected us in very different ways. You chose Elisabeth Sennitt Clough’s painfully resonant ‘The Homewrecker and His Pun’ as our...
by Kate Birch | Jan 6, 2017 | 2016 poetry picks
Smugglers in memory of Frau L. This blanket of dark; perfect conditions for our latest trip to the siding together. A woman can’t see what’s next to her nose as we clamber down, clutching bags and each other by the elbow. Mind out, it can’t be far from here. Shush....
by Kate Birch | Jan 6, 2017 | 2016 poetry picks
The Homewrecker and His Pun She has high hopes for her white sauce this Christmas. The roux glistens from the wash and slap of milk, as she lightens it a ladle at a time. Her veins grow taut on her forearm as she beats the buttery yellow mixture. Droplets hit her skin...
by Kate Birch | Jan 6, 2017 | 2016 poetry picks
Time of goodwill The elf on the shelf won’t stop staring we bought him from marks & sparks and he seems to turn a few degrees each evening I first noticed on the 5th December when his glare moved towards the newly constructed tree we got from b&q But lately he...
by Kate Birch | Dec 14, 2016 | 2016 poetry picks, Blogs & News, prizes and awards
Maybe it was the sense of speed, the need to leave it all behind and yet remain ‘weirdly still in the centre’, but Christian Wethered’s ‘Blade’ raced home to be Ink Sweat & Tears’ Pick of the Month for November 2016....
by Helen Ivory | Dec 12, 2016 | 2016 poetry picks, Prose & Poetry
The Red Shoes Never danced with a boy. Wanted to. Couldn’t flirt and risk the invitation. No rhythm. No chance. I imagined the red shoes would do the trick. Too impatient to save (Twelve weeks an eternity to me) I distracted him; the Saturday boy...
