Blog Archives

The Botang, by Adrian McRobb

20/5/2022

The Botang is a tidy fish
and swims upon its back
lives on the Serengetti
alone, or in a pack

The Botang hates the Elephant
because its scared of snakes
likes, raspberry ice cream trifle
and drinks chocolate milkshakes

When hunting the wiley Botang
don't approach it from behind
because it has wing mirrors
and rancid bacon rind

If I had a pet one
which, I would not advise
they spend the daytime knitting
and have dark hypnotic eyes...

3 Comments

Peace, by Marjan Sierhuis

20/5/2022

10 Comments

A crisp spring morning.
My solitary walk brings
inner peace and joy

10 Comments

Endless Numbers, by Ivan Ristic

20/5/2022

2 Comments

from the first cry in the womb
to the last smile in the tomb
so much sorrow and joy
in this life still passing by

57 units of pain
or just 21 grams of soul
you have always been between
those lucky
endless numbers

2 Comments

Maleficent Mary, by Mimi Grouse

20/5/2022

13 Comments

Editor's Choice

Maleficent Mary was terribly scary
So they burned her alive at the stake,
But before she died, she opened her eyes
And said, 'I curse all the bread you bake!'
As the flames climbed high and scalded the sky
Her voice rose in cackling laughter,
So the Inquisitors ran with bucket and can
To put out the fire with water.
But Maleficent Mary ever so scary
Crept out of her funeral pyre
To haunt hearth and home and sing in the gloam
As she danced between graveyard and spire.

13 Comments

Encroachment, by Sue Clayton

13/5/2022

7 Comments

When I wake this morning snow covers the ground
Creatures are sheltering not a one to be found
And the birdsong is silent there’s nary a sound

A season’s portent some may choose to say
But enlighten me please if you can I pray
Why is winter encroaching on a bright summer’s day?

Balmy hot countries now shiver with cold
And cold climes suffer when heat waves take hold
Our planet may be spared, if I may be so bold

To beg climate change to cease from today
So our environment can thrive in its own natural way
Then winter won’t encroach on a bright summer’s day

7 Comments

Kansas Vortex, by Sterling Warner

13/5/2022

2 Comments

Navigating storm cellars
we’d crawl along floors
flattening our guts, wishing

the farmhouse stove’s warmth
had traveled with us as we
burrowed ourselves far below

rotating columns of air
its twisting, turning vacuum
leveling the barn, throwing

tractors and pick-up trucks
in four directions, setting them
down in cornfields where ripe husks

opened wide, absorbed seismic shocks,
fashioned random crop circles as we
siblings & I huddled tight atop damp dirt.

2 Comments

Transformation, by Guy Fletcher

13/5/2022

3 Comments

It's been over thirty years
and now her face is as worn
as a homeless man's old pair of shoes
from too many toxic substances.
Age has withered him too
as he observes her world-weary hands
shake like leaves in the breeze.
Oh, how swiftly the years fly by :
he remembers being entranced
by her youthful beauty like a
Botticelli painting but now
only when she smiles a trace remains.
She always appears youthful in his sleep
knowing his obsession...was only skin deep.

3 Comments

Sing, by Marjan Sierhuis

6/5/2022

12 Comments

The sun shines brightly
Please sing your heart out, everyone,
for the world to hear

12 Comments

Lesson in a Silent Language, by Alex Blaine

6/5/2022

4 Comments

As a child I learnt
British Sign Language

I still can say
Pink
Blue
Please
Thank you
and F off

4 Comments

The Swimmer, by Guy Fletcher

6/5/2022

2 Comments

As I saunter across the pebbles
of Penarth beach next to the pier
my thoughts conjure Kathleen Thomas
who at only twenty years of age
became the first to swim the Channel
from Penarth to Weston-super-Mare.
Due to the tide the distance
between shores became twice as long.
What elation she must have experienced
as she reached the sands of Weston.
I watch the placid waves sizzle
on this somnolent, sunny spring day
and seem to view Kathleen Thomas' ghost
beginning her swim from the South Wales coast.

2 Comments

Poetry

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