Today’s choice
Previous poems
Chrissy Banks and Antony Owen (from the IS&T archives) for Holocaust Memorial Day
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep
Goodnight moon, goodnight stars,
goodnight cherry, pear, apple tree.
Goodnight pond, stop wriggling, newts,
stop zipping the water, water-boatmen.
Goodnight, glossy horses on the hill,
rabbits in the field, white owl,
hungry and flying still. Goodnight
pigeon, head tucked under your wing.
Goodnight cars and vans on the road outside.
Time to shut off engines, grab some rest.
Goodnight Danny, Dylan. Put away
your books, leave those other worlds for now.
Goodnight Lenny. Still your football legs,
calm your curious senses. Lay your head
on the pillow and sleep. Goodnight little Cece.
Take off your princess dress, your crown.
Can you feel a pea under the mattress?
You’ll never tell if you don’t lie down.
Good night children of Syria, Gaza, Ukraine,
Jerusalem. Close your eyes if you can.
The stars shine on you all.
The moon sees everything.
Song for a yellow star belt
In the square
they are beating men to classical music
last year they danced in this spot, the same children watched.In the square
a local orchestra kneels before its composer
he is made to throttle the defiant celloist with piano strings.
All things pass,
ignore the old shoemaker covering the breasts of his dead wife,
in five years, he will watch from the patisserie as kids chalk hopscotch.
All things pass,
like the twitching general damned by the sleight seamstress.
He thought she closed her eyes but she snared him in a blink shot.
In the orchestra,
a solitary flutist set free an excerpt of the murdered crescendo.
I swear a whole crowd gathered in the square to hear it soar like black fireworks.
With five collections of poetry focusing on conflict Antony Owen is a well respected writer known for investigative poetry which took him to Hiroshima in 2015 to interview atomic bomb survivors. His subsequent collection, The Nagasaki Elder (V.Press) was shortlisted for a Ted Hughes Award in 2017
‘Song for a yellow star belt’ was first published on 27th January 2020. ‘Post-Atomic Glossaries: New and Selected Poems‘ was published by Broken Sleep Books in 2024.
Daya Bhat
* first rain- puddling up to gather the sky * midnight parade on my wall, insomniac car lights * still holding her own among the who’s who - crescent moon Daya Bhat from Bangalore, India enjoys writing free verse and short form...
John Davies
Afterthought She knits something pink with curved needles, pauses only to check and recheck the lines of code that define the pattern she nibbles with her fingers. She casts off the raised levels of FHA, her daughter’s ovulation, the tantalising...
Mick Corrigan
From the Blue Life won’t be contained by how far the horizon, we don’t compose the song of each other but revel in the days of making. Love carries the seeds of its own tragedy and you can’t come through it unscathed, but endure the days of...
Matt Gilbert
Afoot Only, when your face slams into solid glass, somewhere outside Dorking – a squared-off edge unmentioned in map or guide – do you realise what’s going on, presence noted by a watchful deer, wary at the edge of woods, the skulk of abandoned...
Nikki Robson
Valentine’s Day, 2016 The red-eye was delayed three times. On the third I told them my father had died and I had to get home. I was given yesterday’s paper. My mobile rang: a woman wanted to change her contract. I told her my father had died. She...
Imogen McHugh
Driven I named him Driven after what he had done. Thinking of all the places we would go together under the canopies of the trees, the watery suns the skin of his knuckles popped out against the steering wheel one hand at two o’clock, the other...
Marie Little
In the Garden Club Hut with Dad Underarmed up onto the bench beside you pondering your bad back, too much flesh above my knees I absorb the morning like a dry seed. You chat, easy with customers most already friends hand them smiles in paper bags...
Cindy Botha
Footnotes to a river Pine trees are confirmation that darkness clings erratically. The river-gums, on the other hand, are pale as thighs. A streambed knuckled with pebbles. In conversation with the river, you will not match its fluency. Bellbird,...
Ivan de Monbrison
мы сделаны из кусочков тишины вместе взятых. гроб из плоти - это тело оно содержит нас от рождения до смерти но в небе только одно облако осталось висеть на углу наклонного здания и кто в любой момент мог упасть we are made of pieces...