So, You Think Your Mother is a Gorgon? You suspect it when she looks at you and you freeze, unable to apologise, or leave. The words you could say are stones in your mouth,...

      Landowner You say you don’t remember the time you slashed your razor-palm across my cheeks. When I fell to meet your shoe, a flint of rage stabbed my gut again. I remember well....

      In Chartres 1 Young girl on a bench Lights a cigarette, Then, with her cigarette-holding hand, Tries to put on sunglasses And, with her camera-holding hand, Tries to position...

      Blue Moon I blue moon from drunk-ship said I watch the purple-milk lake & though my head is ugly no head has any use   II rusted smear or rain by us the lake is...

      Solace in a Kiln The fire set to fuse your glaze, fix your form, was fierce but you haven’t burst. So you are a good pot.     Theodore Best has an MA in Poetry from...

    Writing Gate If the field gate is saturated and the garden soil too dry to dig, my world is screwed. Having managed the day before to lay that pen for the second raised bed just before...

    Pilot Light I drink from the well at world's end. Generously, to a fault, or so it seems, so much for longevity, a sacred slumber That catches the moon and plays with it. An unusual...

      School Sarah Crown interviews Alice Oswald. the trauma of a single sleepless night back door left open for the cat the dog and the breeze to blow in. the natural world...

      Cash Feus Everything is covered with dust or dustsheets. The armchairs look like ghosts of themselves, only suitable for ghosts to sit in. This is no abode for the living, and...

    Wednesday’s Homework (Set: five Latin verbs, an essay on Lord Palmerston and problems on a parallelogram.) Walks home with Jinks, who says the girls are on for Saturday, straight now....