Late Birth Two thousand years’ wait in the cold soil, stones and worms my friends. Some kind of tremor hurts me into movement – I fight the heavy clay. One hand grasps fibres,...

  Stars and Flags ‘It’s old light, and there’s not much of it. But it’s enough to see by’ Margaret Atwood, Cat’s Eye Sandstone walls erected in water borders at night flags flapping above...

      The Last Boat Do you remember when we took that boat sunlight I got there early to wait for you I had on a dress and my shoes embarrassed me they were too loud for the morning...

      Hot Pot For 李美其   My friend and I selected vegetables, mushrooms, meat, and long strands of sliced seaweed. I am illiterate, in China, so she read out loud and checked all...

      The thief There’s nothing petty about this thief who cuts your purse with a practised flick of his knife and pockets its contents. Copper, silver, gold – he wants it all. He...

    The Space Between Breaths After Kate Edwards Some are uneasy about the space between breaths. They say she is a block of raw Carrara marble before the sculptor exposes a muscled form,...

      Grey Mare’s Tail Warkworth Castle January 1463 Goosanders tack from Amble Braid, over the weir, through the bridge’s twin arches, round the curve of the Coquet.  Wind scratches...

      A Landscape Although now I turn and walk away (this region is not known to me), there is something about the bulge of hills, the dark winter woods thrown across them like bear...