Today’s choice
Previous poems
Andy Humphrey
Becoming Hedgehog
(i)
Noises are louder now: the kesh
of tyres on tarmac slicked
with leaves. Rain’s drumming thunder.
My other self pulls at me,
pricks from inside. Limbs compress, ribs
tighten around starved lungs. I furl;
I shrink, a leaf about to drop
quivering from its branch. Spine arches;
fingers, toes close in.
My needle skin hides me
in lengthening shadows: my armour
against the dogs, the melancholy owls.
(ii)
They all tell of frogs
snogged by princesses, lanky green
specimens transformed
into slender knights.
But it takes a special kiss
to break a hedgehog spell, to make
that knotted ball of me
unravel.
You have to place your x
just at the soft spot
at the tip of the nose, the point
where all taste and touch and feeling begins.
Slip, and you risk
mouthfuls of bristles, bleeding lips
and your one and only chance
to see real magic at work.
Andy Humphrey has published two collections of original poetry, A Long Way to Fall (Lapwing Press, 2013) and Satires (Stairwell Books, 2015). He lives in York and works as a solicitor. www.writeoutloud.net
Chrissy Banks
. . . Yes, I’ve tasted pomegranates
and I know what they do. The sense of vertigo:
happily dizzy at first, as if you’ve downed
a bottle of Shiraz or Merlot. You live by night . . .
Jenny Hockey
I knew the earth rolling by
was red, smelt its tang on the wind,
felt woods weighing green
Karen Luke
My sister’s father wound is the flush cut
on the bark where she lost her foothold
and fell,
the trunk burning red between her thighs
all the way down the tree to the ground…
Suzanna Fitzpatrick
Half five. The sky thickens to darkness
through the grime on the tall windows,
the claw marks of rain. Someone whistles
in the corridor…
Robin Vaughan-Williams
Something is pulling at my T-shirt.
Something is holding my hand.
I can feel it walking beside me…
Chen-ou Liu
snow crystals
on my neighbor’s windows …
Foreclosure askew
& more
Greek Feature Day 5 with Vasiliki Albedo, Tim Taylor, Lisa Kelly and Rebecca Tiger
Club Hydra Vasiliki Albedo's poems have appeared in The Poetry Review, Poetry London, Oxford Poetry, The London Magazine, Poetry Wales, Magma, The Rialto, and elsewhere. She won the 2023 Hammond House International Literary Prize and the Poetry Society's...
Greek Feature Day 4 with Sue Burge, Catherine Edmunds and Laura Davis
Sue Burge’s two poetry collections are: In the Kingdom of Shadows and Confetti Dancers (Live Canon). Lumière and The Saltwater Diaries, both pamphlets, are published by Hedgehog Poetry Press. Her third collection, The Artificial Parisienne, is...
Greek Feature Day 3 with Sue Wood, Rosie Garland and Elvire Roberts
Daphne (It is predicted that by 2050 there will be at least one green autotropic person on Earth) She came with a label tied to her toe: “Daphne”. An ordinary cadaver, but young, too young for an early death – her beauty subdued – yet it made us gasp, her flared hips,...