by Helen Ivory | Nov 10, 2018 | Prose & Poetry
Danesbury Neurological Centre On a green hillside we found your clinic, wrote down our names at the day-bright reception, took the lift down to floor minus 1 – in a shared room you sat in a wheelchair, waved and nodded – and an old man in a chair...
by Helen Ivory | Nov 9, 2018 | 2018 poetry picks, Prose & Poetry
Home Truths Here are the woods, managed by a skilled crew, and one good straight birch picked out with a red stripe — is it condemned or chosen? Here are the characters: the magpies check out glitter for the nest, the crows fidget in the wind,...
by Helen Ivory | Nov 7, 2018 | Prose & Poetry
A Garden There was something I wanted to say, now, I can’t remember. Something about a garden and a young man’s terrible illness. Yes, a garden… Richard’s garden. Nights of planning, pages of notes, seedlings with difficult names, a pergola leading in....
by Helen Ivory | Nov 5, 2018 | 2018 poetry picks, Prose & Poetry
First Birth The two owls shout from the rooftop A hurricane of bats flies around, A father devours his own child in silence. The rising stars struggle to breathe in The first to go out in the dark is the slum boy knowing no one is waiting, A monster...
by Helen Ivory | Nov 4, 2018 | Prose & Poetry
The Conker Trees Wanging the stick up into the conker trees, it seemed like the best ones hung just out of range, bulging, like wrecking balls, unconquerable, unshifted by wind, their stems unsnipped by sun. Or if they fell, we must have still been in...
by Helen Ivory | Nov 3, 2018 | Prose & Poetry
How Not to Start the Day One should avoid at all costs Ungodly hours such as 3.15 or 4.22 – You are not a night-watchman Unless of course you are a night-watchman In which case you should read these instructions During the night and not during the day...
