Michael W. Thomas
Fullwoods End
(Roseville, West Midlands)
Subversion of a name: you may be led
to picture foxglove strand and windmill sail.
The proper truth’s one more ‘Dunroamin’ vale
where, way ahead of snow, the trees play dead.
A no-place, linking Bilston’s pointless grime
to tailbacks on the Birmingham New Road;
a raw park, station, pub: the faceless mode
of now, a tunnel for the gust of time.
Perhaps. Yet schoolyears found me sprinting through
its dogleg ways at five. And that first date
secured me to its bus stop, to the view
of pyre and depot. Even now, though late
and speeding past, I brake, pull in and gaze
at all that curtained fastness, all those days.
Michael W. Thomas’s latest title is The Stations of the Day (Black Pear, 2019). His work has appeared in The Antioch Review, Critical Survey and the TLS, among others. http://www.michaelwthomas.co.
Matthew Friday
The Remote Controlled Car
A prized possession of a toy-starved childhood:
one of the first remote controlled cars,
chrome still gleaming, Dan Dare curves,
tucked up in time-capsule coffin from the 1950’s.
It appeared by accident, landing from space
when dad was organising his Wunderkammer
of books not read, photographs not looked at,
a collection of model owls in forgotten nests.
For a few brief, bright seconds we got to look,
not touch, never play, stay in the box as it’s worth a lot,
worth growing every day, one day sell it, make money,
but never really going to sell it, play with it.
Needs a battery. So old now. Probably won’t work.
Back it goes on stacked shelves above the phone
that rarely rang, wrapped up in excuses and tissue
paper, tucked in tight behind squeaking doors.
Matthew Friday is a writer, professional storyteller and primary school teacher. By all means check out the results at: matthewfriday.weebly.com/poetry
Read MoreVote Vote Vote for your March 2020 Pick of the Month.
Despite the uncertainty of everything, our Ink Sweat & Tears’ Pick of the Month still goes on and we have a fine shortlist of poets that it will be difficult to chose from. Will it be Kitty Coles’ ‘The moon is a cannibal:’ that eats you from within or ‘The Opposite of Pygmalion’ by Gillie Robic that tickles the hairs on the back of your neck? Can you catch a ray of hope from Moyra Donaldson‘s ‘A Sudden Shaft of Light’ or enjoy being ‘In the shower with Gerard Manley Hopkins’ (and Jo Bratten)? Does the edge in Sanjeev Sethi‘s ‘A Factory of Feelings’ appeal or would you prefer to take comfort from Patrick Deeley‘s ‘Homing Pigeon’?
All six of the shortlist have been chosen by Helen or Kate or received the most attention on social media. They can be found below or by clicking on ‘Vote for Your March 2020 Pick of the Month′ in the Categories list to your right on the screen.
Please VOTE HERE. Voting will close at 9pm on Easter Monday (13th April.)
For the lockdown period, our normal Pick ‘prize’ of £10 towards the UK charity of your choice or a National Book Token will rise to £30*. Charities and booksellers, both, have been hit hard by the shutdown and we wanted to make a (admittedly very small) gesture of support.
*Book tokens can only be used within the UK and will be divided between £20 for the winning writer and a £10 token for the person of their choice.
Read MorePaul Connolly
Leaf
On the new-mown playing field, summer-yellowed
and ragged, but glistening in the autumn morning,
a horse-dung gobbet amid the straw
slithered grassily into his glance which focused
uncertainties of glancing smoky as rainfall
and caught in the brown-green instant a dragon,
swirls of alloyed gemstone, experiments
in jade, lacquer and glazes, and grew
a soaking boulder, mountainous, ravines
alive with overnight storms, until
the plane leaf’s stray hump
unfolded and rocked from the sudden stem’s
shock anomaly through certitude’s decay.
As well as IS&T, Paul Connolly’s poems have appeared in Agenda, Warwick Review, Poetry Salzburg, The Reader, Scintilla, Dawntreader, Takahē, Dream Catcher, The Journal, FourXFour, Seventh Quarry, Sarasvati, Envoi, Obsessed with Pipework, Southlight, High Window, Northampton Poetry Review, London Grip.
Read MoreKathleen McPhilemy
One for sorrow
St Valentine’s Day and now
it is we who are falling
one by one all around
in spring sunshine is the glitter
of a magpie’s eye
he fixes me
from his perch on the half-wrecked shed
auguring this week’s sorrow
fresh in black and white finery
he lifts over the raised beds
flirts and jinks
over the late-standing leeks
and shoots of garlic poking through
the dark turned over earth.
Kathleen McPhilemy was born and brought up in Northern Ireland but now lives in Oxford. She has published three books of poetry, the most recent being The Lion in the Forest (https://www.katabasis.co.uk).
Read MoreJohn Grey
The Non-Banjo Player
If I had a father who was
a virtuoso on the banjo,
I’d be playing bluegrass now.
But he died
before he had a chance
to teach me anything.
So, instead, I learned
from this dark hole in my life.
Wrote poetry.
Plunkety plunk plunk plunk.
John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in That, Dalhousie Review and North Dakota Quarterly with work upcoming in Qwerty, Chronogram and Clade Song.
Read More