Poems

White Cyclamen by

June–July 2014, no. 362

Nothing is whiter,
like clouds with the sun inside them.
Nothing is smoother,
like clouds and the moon beside them.

City Lights: San Francisco by

June–July 2014, no. 362

I was reading a poem in that upstairs sunlit room
when I looked up and thought I saw you, Harry,
standing beside the window across from the apartment
where laundry hung outside like a fireman’s ladder snaking

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Walking Off by

by Fleur Adcock •

May 2014, no. 361

Take the Dasslers, for example: even with
a buggy and two horses they were walking –
leaving it all, turning their backs, quitting

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The Least Feigning by

by Chris Wallace-Crabbe •

May 2014, no. 361

What you say
about poetry
could very well
be stone-
cold factual

... (read more)

The Philosphy Exam by

by Kevin Brophy •

May 2014, no. 361

Now you have seen the elephant and heard
from an ex-student who blogs an elegy
to his lost left leg (his transfemoral amputation),
and a friend (you visit him in emergency)

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2014 Porter Prize Shortlist

by Paul Kane et al. •

May 2014, no. 361

The Peter Porter Poetry Prize – now open to all poets writing in English – is one of our most prestigious prizes of its kind. Read this year’s four shortlisted poems.

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Reading the Greek Myths by Judith Bishop

by Judith Bishop •

April 2014, no. 360

You are seething; I am worried.
We have read the Greek myths.

This anger of yours feels like
a distant thunderclap

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Camellias by Brendan Ryan

by Brendan Ryan •

April 2014, no. 360

I take a straw broom to the damp leaves on the side path.
The concrete pavers are stained and dirty as they have been
for much of the year. Stooping allows me to see

... (read more)