Today’s choice
Previous poems
Myra Schneider
Cloud
Forget the invisible network of servers which stores
and manages or mismanages data in the unending sky
far above our heads, and ignore the shroud-grey layers
louring today – they seem to have sucked all the colour
out of this world which struggles every day to cope
with disasters. Slow down and try to immerse yourself
in the whiteness above the distant rows of houses,
spread your arms and let them rise above your head.
Think of them as dancing clouds and lightness will fill you,
ease your aching body. On evenings when scarlet
floods inky layers of sky, watch the incandescent globe
above the viaduct in the park as it sinks into darkness.
Now imagine clouds sucking in water vapour until heavy
as milky udders, they release rain that cleanses the air
and seeps into the over-dry ground beneath it.
The moisture will soften clods, feed worms, sticklebacks,
beetles, all the creatures living below the surface.
Go into your drenched garden, breathe in the sweet air
and think of Wordsworth wandering lonely as a cloud
through field after sodden field. Then close your eyes,
picture the moment he caught sight of the daffodils.
Myra Schneider’s most recent collection is Believing in the Planet, (Poetry Space 2024). Her other publications include fiction for children and teenagers, books about personal writing, in particular Writing My Way Through Cancer and Writing Your Self (with John Killick). She has had 14 full collections of poetry published and her work has been broadcast on Radio BBC4 and BBC3. She was consultant to the Second Light Network for women poets during its 25 years and frequently wrote reviews for its magazine Artemis. An in-depth interview about her poetry and books appeared in Acumen in September (2025). Her work has been widely published in printed and online poetry magazines, also occasionally in newspapers. She has finalized a new collection The Disappearing which is due late in 2026 from Poetry Space. She has co-edited anthologies of poetry by women poets and she has been a poetry tutor for many years.
Note: Dancing clouds is a Tai Chi/Gigong exercise
Silas Gorin
Bear Bear, you’re a mouth that breathes while it chews and you spray your wisdom on bits of bread Bear you’re a man who lives fast and loose with a loneliness cavernous inside your head Bear can I ask you to eat your own tongue when you spy bought...
Nastia Svarevska: to mark the beginning of Anti-Bullying Week
a solitary word when i feel lonely, i let hot water melt my iceberg body and disappear into the drain. it meets all kinds of ruined creatures there; we sit together by the fire, holding our flared up hands, and see that void is not so empty after all,...
Christopher Collier
Floodgate The first sight was a sound from a high valley it didn’t know itself it curled around corners a tree swayed gently and the water touched the low branches first a gentle flow then faster a double wave but no crest no breaking surf it passed...
Steven Waling
Tree of Jesse for Durgesh Born here that street with the hole in the middle was it I or you digging finds on a bombsite on my knees hands buried in roots Surrounded by grave goods suppress in yourself the idea of merit head of the great warrior in...
Kitty Donnelly
Manual For Bereavement Clearances There’ll be Bibles. Multiple Bibles. Mementoes of a porcelain era: plates and china, knives and forks in Sheffield-stickered boxes. Decide if the dead are at rest. Talk to them, the previous inhabitants, justify...
Ruth Fry
Stocktaking In Scots law, the foreshore is defined as the area between the high and low water marks of ordinary spring tides… and is presumed to be owned by ancient right by the Crown. - Fifth Report of the Scottish Affairs Committee, 2014 Head...
Marie Little
The Picture A bird made a sound like a fist on our window. Mum tiptoed towards it as if it was sleeping then cupped it in her hand. Just a baby warm and silent. She stroked it talked to it wandered around with it still in her hand – still, in her...
Chris Kinsey
Chris Kinsey grew up in rural Herefordshire but always wanted to head for the hills in Shropshire and Wales. After a degree in Yorkshire, she settled in Mid-Wales. She’s had five collections of poetry published. Her most recent: From Rowan Ridge was...
Gareth Writer Davies
Gilestone Standing Stone the map tells me not much (there are so many megaliths hereabouts) on the point of giving up there it is three metres tall girthy like a pollarded oak its reason now lost in depopulation maybe it was erected here for its...