They arrive clothed in April keenness, three
Valkyries, a cloudy V made for smaller birds. They fly across the face of the National Theatre: golden spikes, a winged charioteer and reeling horses, frozen in jealous bronze. Bobbing heavy on the possibility they’re too big to be airborne. The three Snow White travellers line up over the Vltava river, but exhausted currents tug them, a drunken line, between sights of the Castle, the Old Town, centuries of migration, unchanging instinct. They lower and pass over Charles Bridge, ignoring lucky statues, bands, artists, beggars, hawkers, two dogs arguing. Wings folding down, an impossibly controlled curve that looks like crash landing in trees. Instead a perfect landing on the river, home. Published by Ink, Seat & Tears in April 2019, and nominated for Poem#of the Month..
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With adult care she decants the full glass of fizzy water, into her glass, lemon slice swirling on the half-silver surface. Two hands holding. She repeats twice, studying her efforts, mistakes pooling under the glass. She takes hold of her glass and test-sips. No. More water needed. Steadily, she tops-up her glass. Sips so little you wonder if it’s worth it. Yes. The worth is in sudden exploration. She moves the glass aside to reveal the pool of water. She gives the table an exploratory lick. Back to sipping her glass. No. A new decision now. She gently lays her hands in the pool, feeling the water, clapping the table, smearing the water into angel wings. Mother arrives with questions, wanting an explanation. Reply: ‘I’m making a mess.’ Published in Brushfire Literature & Arts Journal, May 2019. Little Emperor of human cut hills
posing on wooden posts, back turned away in contempt from the road with a wood-brown body carved out of G-forces, flecks of flint, the hooks at the end of the horizon, yellow eyeing the bulbing fields, furry woods shivering in mouse skulls curving up into the cloudy cranium. For one daggered second, she is frozen stiff, tensing for the tug of tendons. We drive away on the Ides of March. Published in The Ear (USA), May 2019. |
Poetry Biography:I have had over 70 poems published in the following worldwide magazines and literary journals: A Handful of Stones, Acta Victoriana (Canada), All the Sins (UK), The Amethyst Review (USA), Amsterdam Quarterly (NL) The Blue Nib (Ireland), Bolts of Silk, Borderless Journal, The Brasilia Review (Brazil), Bushfire Literature & Arts Review (US), Cadenza, Cake Magazine, Carillon, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (Hong Kong), DASH (USA), Clackamas Literary Review (USA), Cooch Behar Anthology, Dawntreader, Dreamcatcher, The Dillydoun Review, Earth Love, The Ear (US), Eastlit (East Asia), Erbacce, Envoi, Finger Dance Festival, Ginosko, Gloom Cupboard, Hidden Channel, Inlandia Journal, IS&T (Ink, Sweat & Tears), Into the Void (Canada), The Journal, The Lakeview Journal (India), Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Lunch Ticket (USA) The New Writer, One Hand Clapping, Orbis, Oregon English Journal (USA), The Passage Between, Prole, Sentinel Literary Quarterly, Sonic Boom (India), Third Wednesday (USA), Of Nepalese Clay (Nepal), New Contrast (South Africa), One Hand Clapping, Opportunity Publishing, The Oregon English Journal (USA) Origami Poems Project (USA), The Paddock Review (USA), Panoplyzine (USA), Paper Swan Press, The Passage Between, The Peacock Journal (USA), Pens on Fire, Poetry Salzburg (Austria), Potomac Review, (USA) Prole, Pulsar Poetry, Rear View Poetry, Queen Mob's Teahouse, Qutub Minar Review (India), Red Ink, Shiela-Na-Gig (USA), South Bank Poetry Magazine, Stand, Waterford Teachers Centre, (Ireland) We Are a Website New Literary Journal (Singapore), Weber - The Contemporary West Review (USA), Windfall (USA), Writing Magazine, Words for the Wild and Verbal Art (India). Archives
March 2024
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