Today’s choice

Previous poems

Simon Maddrell

by | Sep 4, 2025 | ,

 

 

 

Bringing Pilates to Attention

Four years in Knockaloe was a living
inspiration for inventor Joseph Pilates.
His self-contained exercise in mental-
physical health spawned a method which
he called Contrology — corrective drills

grown within the camp. All of them
rounded up & shipped there demonstrates
the art of controlled body movements.
Alien detainment being The Universal
Reformer — a piece of equipment feeling

& looking like a workout rather than what
it really is — a non-regulated professional
practice. Albeit 3,000 guards won’t agree
considering their emphasis on alignment.
The Spine Corrector, Ladder Barrel and

Pedi-Poles were used for issues confined
to a prescribed area. However, there is no
proof that any of this improved balance
or even does now — proof that there are
only some things you can make right.

 

 

Simon Maddrell appears in Gutter, Magma, Poetry Wales, SAND, Southword, The Rialto, Under the Radar, and many others. Their sixth pamphlet is Patient L1  (Polari Press, 2025). Out-Spoken Press will publish Simon’s debut collection in Feb 2026.  Find @simonmaddrell almost everywhere.  Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/simonmaddrell Website: https://www.simonmaddrell.com

William Collins

by | Jun 25, 2025 | ,

We carry the shame of Paragraph 352D
folded into suitcases at foreign borders,
where love is questioned like a crime,
and disbelief stamped heavier than visas.
They tell us to run for our lives —
but only if we can do it quietly.

Oz Hardwick

by | Jun 24, 2025 | ,

The ghost of my mother knows the names of everything, but
she can’t tell me, because ghosts, whatever you have heard
to the contrary, can’t speak.

Warren Mortimer

by | Jun 22, 2025 | ,

& you’ll understand if i leave open this theatre of air
not as the invite for another loss
but to honour their world unwilling to collapse

Jena Woodhouse

by | Jun 21, 2025 | ,

Language reinvents itself,
coruscates in signs on walls;
falls silent, mute as clay and stone
on tablets that enshrine its form.