Today’s choice
Previous poems
Stephen Chappell
At the Barbers
She has a way of tilting your head
as if lining up a thought.
Neither rough nor tender—decisive,
like someone used to responsibility.
She remembers names,
gently enquires after sick wives,
errant sons, daughters who never phone,
knees that won’t work on the stairs.
Old blokes come in for the cut,
eyebrow decluttering,
nose tweezering,
ears tweaked of fluff.
She works quickly, cheaply.
Cash only. Her father’s rule.
Upstairs he “keeps the books,”
which means smoking by the window.
She wanted to stay at school
she tells me
but left at fifteen
learned the grammar of heads—
quiffs, cowlicks, scars,
the way grief settles.
When I sit she listens
as if the day depends on it.
At the end she brushes my collar clean,
steps back, checks a job well done.
I leave,
feeling better.
Stephen Chappell came to poetry late (he is 72 and counting), finding the writing and reading of it a pleasure and an addiction. He lives on the side of the Malvern Hills with dog, cat and significant other and is mostly happy, especially when writing.
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,...
Greek Feature Day 2 with Patrick Williamson, Jena Woodhouse and Kate Hendry
The temple at nightfall Patrick Williamson's recent poetry collections include Presenza (Samuele Editore). Here and Now and Take a deep look (Cyberwit.net). Editor/translator of Turn your back on the night (The Antonym) and The Parley Tree, Poets from French-speaking...
Greek Feature Day 1 with Leanne Moden, Elliott Waloschek and Z D Dicks
Herpetology Often, my worries are frog-shaped, flexed flippers flashing through vanishing ripple reflections. Poisonous green thoughts. The amphibious twisting of double-state catastrophising. I have perfected the art of doing nothing, looking busy and helping no one....
Judith Wilkinson
If I can shape-change myself if I can
reassemble the rubble of my vision
so I can re-see
dragonflies, apocalypses, trivia
Juliet Humphreys
Look at me, look —
night eyes find their way
without light.
Damon Hubbs
How a Plastic Bag in an Elm Tree on Winter St. Learned to Mimic the Moon
It’s growing in what was once the tree
with the great green room.
It’s singing in yogurt
and fluttering like an amorphous pearl
of necrosis.
Shasta Hatter
Empty Basket
Driving down the boulevard, I see large trees decorated with pink and white blossoms, evergreens tower over houses, trees flourish with spring greenery.