Today’s choice
Previous poems
Annette Iles
You Again
across the street
I am washed off my feet
my heart
splashes up into pieces
as if someone has thrown a stone
into the pool of me
all these years
I thought myself dry ground
but I am a stream a loch a river
brim full
sequinned with light
you smile
I ripple and shimmer
Born in New Zealand, Annette Iles is a Midlands-based poet. Her first pamphlet On New Street I See a Mermaid was recently shortlisted for the 2026 International Rubery Book Award.
Sue Butler
Squirrels have beheaded all my parrot tulips
and the supermarket is out of chilli, also tabasco sauce.
Cormac Culkeen
the sun is a
white coin
lifted
from the sea
Maurice Devitt
Yes, you gave us your elegant hands
and capricious smile, but as I make my way
to the chiropodist this morning,
it’s your feet I’m thinking of . . .
Martin Ferguson
Pursue the facsimile
of the attendance sign;
here you must join the line.
Peter Branson
Emerge, from way beyond the pale, one day,
clenched feet an amulet about your wrist
Alice Huntley
carved from the tusk of my grandmother
I am learning how to remember
Bel Wallace
My dad is thinking geometrically,
eyes closed; he waves his arms
Sarah Crowe
they gave me the cold
cap to stop my chemo
hair falling out
Daniel Dean
A beastly man swallowing leeks. His throat
Is dirt, and yet his ghost could sit with Raphael