Today’s choice

Previous poems

Helen Akers

by | Jan 21, 2026 | ,

 

 

 

Window of tolerance

we’re trying to construct a frame for this
highly reactive impulsive emotion
the nurse is looking into it     meanwhile
we must find something cold to hold    lick it
we’re trying to expand the tolerance – think
of a moth thumping at the window     imagine
a pane     adjustable along the diagnosis
for excessive information’s tiny racing heart
to be  processed     a bullseye window    pivoted
on the horizontal with cunning joints
at either end allowing it to open      let it fly
it’s a lovely day if you like lovely days

 

 

Helen Akers lives in North Norfolk. She is working on a collection of poems which explore the experience of bipolar disorder from the carers’ perspective. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia.

Alison Patrick

by | Apr 10, 2025 | ,

A dozen snail shells exposed on dry soil
in the archangel’s cut brown stalks.
Banded like fairground sweets and helter-skelters . . .

Julie Egdell

by | Apr 8, 2025 | ,

At the shore of impossibility
last moments come to nothing
all our plans die in the salt air
of another new day on the black sea.