Today’s choice
Previous poems
J.S. Dorothy
Greylags
Find yourself by the lake,
its icy membrane split by the long
arrow of a skein, reflected
flurry of wings, cries
bawling. Knit yourself into
a parcel against its shriek, the force
shaping your bones,
steering you somewhere off course,
way beyond the city walls.
It’s as if you never belonged.
Count on one hand the things for which you longed;
watch them each take flight.
J.S. Dorothy is a queer and neurodivergent poet who writes in an (optimistic) attempt to make sense of things. Their work has appeared in numerous publications, including Pennine Platform, The Frogmore Papers, and Poetry Wales. They live in York.
Clare Morris
Necessity, that scold’s bridle, held her humble and mean,
So that she no longer spoke, just looked –
Her world reduced to a search for special offers . . .
Alison Jones
Mrs Norris had thought ascension
would be whirligig rides in bright violet rays,
as the training books all implied.
Sandra Noel
The tide unpleats from her godet,
zig-zags in running stitch
round the base of the côtil.
Matthew Caley
supposedly: if I am to render
‘a man’ then
this ‘man’ must I guess resemble me‹›
Jenny Robb
The nun in charge of the children is thin, her back straight as punishment.
Ken Evans
You try doing star-jumps, steps,
or squats, in knee-high wellies.
Joe Williams
I was born in a town of shadows.
Anne Symons
She was only a little woman
five feet nothing in nylon stockings.
‘If I stood sideways they’d mark me absent.’
Ben
When she said ‘could’, it was clearly in italics
and when she said ‘one day’, the creak of glaciers
shuddered around its edges.