Today’s choice

Previous poems

Lesley Burt

Shell-like

either –
a conch found in hot white sand
on the shoreline at Sanur Beach
a Fibonacci whorl
among morning offerings –
left with reverence
lapped by ripples –
while bright boats with sails
proclaiming Bintang Beer
ferry tourists across the reef
to the roll and surge where
surfers rise and fall

or –
glass fashioned in Murano
to conjure memories of Sanur
and banana-leaf baskets of rice
its form fired
in Laguna di Venezia
from quartz silica sand
in shades of turquoise
edged with white
imitating a conch’s
spikes and whorl although –
pressed against the helix of your ear –
its weight is silent

 

 

Lesley Burt lives in Dorset. Her first pamphlet, ‘Mr & Mrs Andrews Reframed’was published by Templar Poetry in 2023 and ‘Alice spins her Glitterball’ by Tears in the Fence in 2024. Website – payhip.com/LesleyBurtPoetry

Eithne Longstaff

On the road to Belfast today, I failed
to recognise my father. I saw a flamingo

by the Tamnnamore turn off, but paid
little regard as it took off…

Kerry Darbishire

Imagine a spring day drawing out possibilities
the newness of life, sisters in long skirts digging
tangled ground, breaking bones and loam wild