Today’s choice
Previous poems
Clare Bryden
The long arc
I
seek justice
and you hold
a seashell to your ear
hear
oceans whispering limitless
sssshhh
history heaps sheering waves
shattering across reefs
sweeping shallow bays
rearing breakers
pound shelving beaches
scatter shells with razor-sharp edges
II
knowledge like coral
shelters fluid ecosystems
and fragile
when bleached and gone
none can be recouped
crocheting hyperbolic space
clarebryden.co.uk @clarebryden.bsky.social
William Coniston
My second cousin twice removed arrived in May
at her old nest in the eaves of the ruined barn.
Simon Williams
A white cloak that folds like a shopping bag,
like a Pac-a-mac with pagan overtones,
much larger when unfolded than a pocket,
a TARDIS of a cloak.
Emma Page
I grow shoots, acid green;
climb the walls,
surprise myself.
Mary McQueen
It’s starts in utero, painted wood carvings thick as a
finger, gift
wrapped in nostalgia.
Alan Hardy
Made a list.
A record.
The dishes she ate.
Monuments visited.
In Paris.
Susana Arrieta
Tempting death with every cobblestoned step
his face was a collection of broken records
Peter Leight
There’s more waste than we use for the things we ordinarily use waste for, such as piling it on barges and sending them out to sea, tucking it under the surface like a layer of insulation . . .
John Grey
there are some lives
lived poolside
and others that
mostly consist of
a bent back in a field –
Adam Flint
All summer automatic exits remain
open, and no one leaves or boards.