Today’s choice
Previous poems
Tim Dwyer
Balancing
On the pitch of the roof
a jackdaw holds a twig
longer than its wingspan—
do corvids feel pride?
Balancing the weight,
the bird shuttles
from rooftop to rooftop
to join its partner.
They fly together
beyond my view
where their spring nest
is crafted.
Tim Dwyer’s debut full collection, Accepting The Call (templarpoetry.com), has won the Straid Collection Award. His poetry has appeared in Irish, UK and international journals and anthologies. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, he lives in Bangor, Northern Ireland.
Colin Pink
I used to ‘see’ you when you were alive,
I mean when you weren’t there. I carry you
around like a photo in a wallet.
Lottie McCrindell
All summer the sun scorched the city
and the sky held back its tears.
Roz Doe
The night before,
I paced London’s streets
sparkling and fizzing with ideas
the pills used to dull and destroy.
I felt awake, alive.
Iris Anne Lewis
And so I went into the owl.
Eyes, green as moss,
darken to black. Oak tassels
spell-woven to feathers.
Nairn Kennedy
You notice the nose: webbed veins spritzed
with little flicks of red, purple blotches
daubed with a palette-knife, broken ends
where blood-vessels gave up the ghost.
Jason Ryberg
Still Life of Fish and Bird
Mark McDonnell
Fascinated by the priest’s teeth I don’t realise
I’m kicking the pew in front with a restless foot
until someone taps me sharply on the knee.
James Mason
In Italian I have no inner life.
With no past or future tense
My needs are immediate.
Claire Miller
rose is thirsty
rose senses water
rose root rummages in the earth
rose root punctures lung and frontal lobe
rose stem is a green straw sucking