by Helen Ivory | Jan 11, 2018 | 2018 poetry picks, Prose & Poetry
When Stranded on an Iceberg When stranded on an iceberg in the middle of the ocean, do not squint while the sun screams at you. Remember that somewhere it is raining, that there’s a tempest swirling, a tsunami rising. Even though your clothes are wet, stand up...
by Helen Ivory | Jan 10, 2018 | Prose & Poetry
You decide to make more of your day off not fritter it reading books that half-bore you books celebrated in Sunday supplements books that in five years or maybe ten will represent modern fiction on the syllabuses you teach so you put on jeans and...
by Helen Ivory | Jan 9, 2018 | 2018 poetry picks, Prose & Poetry
Under the Volcano, 23 June 2016 In the distance, Mt. Etna rises, summit veiled in smoke and clouds. Below, fields ripple out, fold into deep blue valley. I sit at a café on the square. Passegiata crowds surge and swirl. Two men strum plaintive...
by Helen Ivory | Jan 7, 2018 | Prose & Poetry
Planes over Guernica Lanzarote, Autumn 1937 The artist hides in a cave doesn’t sketch bison hunts. His feet crackle on black gravel, rust red rock crowds his head. He goes where lava sizzled into sea, hauls strange fish from nooks, catches...
by Helen Ivory | Jan 6, 2018 | Prose & Poetry
Stood Here Like A Lemmin’ Rain drops fall like they used to, each one a wet train into an adolescent’s bedroom. Waiting for it to stop, wanting it to start. Borrowed vynl and homemade compilation tapes, listening to The Wonderstuff, chosen by you. Songs...
by Helen Ivory | Jan 5, 2018 | Prose & Poetry
Hare Dawn. The sky a deep pink, mottled with clouds. Already it’s warm. I roll over and up onto my elbows. Blackbird clucks a scolding and I apologise for intruding into her morning. We go through this daily ritual, as if it were the first time....
