Voices for the Silent – Broken Sleep Books, Channel Magazine, Indigo Dreams

The natural world has found champions in three recent publications. I’m proud to have poems in each of them.

Now on its 7th issue, Dublin-based Channel offers short fiction, poems, translations and essays which encourage reflection on human interaction with plant and animal life, landscape and the self. To buy, submit or watch the launch video, visit: www.channelmag.org

Broken Sleep Books produced Footprints last year containing ecopoetry from more than 90 poets, including Carrie Etter, Kathryn Bevis, Lisa Kelly, Martyn Crucefix, Michelle Penn, Penelope Shuttle and Suzannah Evans. Anthology co-editor, Charlie Baylis, has also launched Anthropocene as an on-line journal for environmental poetry. In the foreword, Aaron Kent reminds us that it’s “time to act, time to stand up.” A tree will be planted for each copy bought: www.brokensleepbooks.com

Any publication with a fox on its cover, gets my vote! Indigo Dreams has a close association with the League Against Cruel Sports, which will benefit from profits from the sale of this anthology. To buy a copy visit: www.indigodreamspublishing.com To find out more about the League, go to: www.league.org.uk

Inside the covers you’ll find work by Margaret Atwood, John Clare, Thomas Hardy, Philip Larkin, Pablo Neruda and William Blake, as well as many contemporary poets.

Magma 84 and The Morning Star

Physics and poetry are uncommon bedfellows, but Susannah Hart and Stav Poleg’s call-out earlier this year has created a Magma pulsing with philosophical vigour (and a few laughs too!) Poets include Vasiliko Albado, Claire Booker, Mark Fiddes, Martin Figura, Philip Gross, Ramona Herdman, Jan Heritage, Tania Hershman, NJ Hynes, Isabella Mead, Hilary Menos, Meredi Ortega, Paul Stephenson, Claudine Toutoungi and Rebecca Watts.

Many of the poets in this issue are scientist or mathematicians, including Ilse Pedler (veterinary surgeon), Ian Buchanan (X-ray imaging scientist), Lucy Calder (astrophysicist), Pippa Goldschmidt (astronomer), Kinneson Lalor and Chris Athorne (mathematicians). A reminder that poetry is not just the reserve of the literary set. Perhaps the arts would do well to become more literate in things scientific.

“As a temporal art that is often concise enough to be held on a single page and form its own unique visual structure, poetry is a perfect vehicle for the concepts of time and space,” write the editors in their intro. “The poem happens in time, as we read it; it keeps changing as we go along with it, and yet, at any time during the process, we can take a glimpse of its entirety. Moreover, in evoking memories, visual images and sounds, the poem may offer us a glimpse to the fact that time is, in fact, not linear.”

Alongside the poems, you can read thought-provoking features, including Lucy Sheerman on how her long-held desire to become an astronaut fed into the libretto she wrote for Peterborough Cathedral. Also, a fascinating exposition by Tania Hershman on the relationship between parts and wholes, in which she literally took literary works apart in her PHD thesis on ‘particle fiction’. Plus, of course, the usual reviews. To buy a copy of Magma (issue 84), take out a subscription, or check the next submissions window, click on the following link: www.magmapoetry.com

And here’s a chance to read my poem, Woman, life, freedom, which was published in The Morning Star on 24th November as their 21st Century Poetry poem of the week. It’s a response to the death of Mahsa Amini (seen right) in suspicious circumstances, following her arrest by the Iranian morality police for improper wearing of her hijab. Mass protests continue, despite harsh penalties.

Click here for the poem: https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/c/21st-century-poetry-woman-life-freedom

Under The Radar – guest edited by Tom Sastry

Perhaps it was in the stars, perhaps it was the guest editor, but after a five year gap, I have a poem in Under The Radar again. It’s a lovely magazine, beautifully spacious, with creamy white pages of up to 35 lines, offering cutting edge poetry and fiction three times a year. It’s published by Nine Arches Press and edited by Jane Commane and Matt Merritt.

Guest editor, Tom Sastry, refreshingly admits to having been “continually disappointed by the lack of mediocrity in the submissions.” What a tormenting joy an editor’s life is! Poets in this issue include Claire Booker, Josephine Corcoran, Louise Crosby, Abigail Flint, Caroline Hammond, Penny Hope, Ed Limb, Bryony Littlefair, Ewan Mackinnon, Elizabeth McGeown, Sophie Meehan, Alexandra Melville, Hilary Menos, Peter Sansom, Kate Scott, Hilary Watson, Julia Webb and Cathy Whittaker.

As well as a rich haul of poems, there are also two strong pieces of fiction by Cheryl Moskowitz and Jane Pearn, plus reviews of collections by, among others, Naush Sabah, Hannah Lowe, Raymond Antrobus, John McCullough and Jane Wong.

There’s also a mini showcase for the up-coming Nine Arches Press anthology, After Sylvia. The book celebrates Plath’s 90th anniversary with new poems and essays inspired by her life, work and legacy. If the three poems (by Rosie Garland, Caleb Parkin, and Merrie Joy Williams) are anything to go by, this anthology will be high on my to-buy list.

If you’d like to buy a copy of issue 29 or take out a subscription to Under The Radar, please click on the following link: Poems, reviews, short fiction in Under the Radar Their current submissions window for poetry is open until December 7th, and for short fiction until January 7th. The theme is ‘journeys’.

And for my final word, I’ll take a mathematical turn with a short Fibonacci poem I had published recently on The Fib Review (issue 43): You can read it here: https://www.musepiepress.com/fibreview/claire_booker1.html

The Fibonacci poem is a poetry form based on the structure of the Fibonacci number sequence; a mathematical sequence in which every figure is the sum of the two preceding it. Thus, you begin with 1 and the sequence follows as such: 1+1=2; then in turn 1+2=3; then 2+3=5; then 3+5=8 and so on. The poetry sequence therefore consists of lines of 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and so on with each number representing the number of syllables or words that a writer places in each line of the poem. Tempted to write one? Go on, you know you want to!

I do love to be beside the seaside! (Part 1)

Thank you to Steve Rushton for inviting me and Caroline Vero to perform at VENT on the Isle of Wight last month.

It was the inaugural VENT, comprising 8 days of free workshops and spoken word as part of The Ventnor Fringe Festival. We kicked off on the first day with a half hour set of our linked poems, alongside poets Lydia Fulleylove and Robyn Bolam with moving poems about their mothers.

With the help of Maggie Sawkins and John Goodwin, Steve managed to gather a truly international and interactive set of artists and writers to his event. These included the poet MARGENTO from Romania, Azam Abidov from Uzbekistan, Literary Waves Publishing Group, Poets Anonymous, and the Isle of Wight & Portsmouth and Havant Poetry Stanza groups.

Here we are wearing our Fringe Artist wrist bands which allowed us free entry to all available shows at Ventnor. What fun we had sampling the delights of folk rock, poetry, avantgarde theatre and the inimitable charm of Fanny Quivers! Tempted for next year? Stay tuned via www.vfringe.co.uk

In Part Two, I’ll whisk you away to Worthing Pier. Don’t forget to bring your Speedos!

The Dark Horse and Poetry Salzburg Review

I’m thrilled to have poems in the latest Dark Horse and Poetry Salzburg Review. Both are magazines I subscribe to because they’re such deliciously chewy reads.

The Dark Horse is edited by Gerry Cambridge, with support from Jennifer Goodrich and Marcia Menter in America. There’s no pussy-footing with opinion here. Gerry’s issue 45 editorial bewails the paucity of honest, incisive literary criticism, and there’s more thoughtful analysis in an article by Maitreyabandhu entitled “Paid Patter: Is Poetry Worth Criticising?” This issue also contains an in-depth feature on the work of Derek Mahon; a fascinating conversation between Gerry Cambridge and Naush Sabah, Poetry Birmingham’s editor, on how community and sub culture can effect poetry criticism; and Teow Lim Goh writes on ideas of nature in Wallace Stevens.

Plus poems, of course! With its generous, almost coffee table size, The Dark Horse shows a poem beautifully. Poets in issue 45 include Suna Afshan, Juliet Antill, Sharon Black, Claire Booker, Suzanne Conway, Chris Hardy, Ailsa Holland, Karl Knights, Angela Leighton, Rob A Mackenzie, Michael Pederson, Niklas Salmi, GC Waldrep, James Warner, Rory Waterman and Ross Wilson. You can buy a copy, take out a subscription, or find out how to submit your own work at www.thedarkhorsemagazine.com

For sheer breadth of poetic approaches, Poetry Salzburg Review takes some beating. You simply can’t second guess what will appear in its densely packed pages. Over 70 poets feature in issue 38, with titles as varying as ‘Painting the Bathroom’, ‘The Seven Acts of Mercy’, ‘A Q’ran of Ruzbihan’, ‘A Young Man Dreams of Dying’, ‘Ukiyo-e’, ‘My Mother Ironing’, ‘Black Eels in Black Water’, ‘Sand Sans Sandcastles’ and ‘Swallowing the Wind’.

Poets in issue 38 include Julian Aiken, Helen Ashley, Deborah Jessica Bicking, Michael Bartholomew-Biggs, Sharon Black, Claire Booker, Elaine Briggs, Derek Coyle, Seth Crook, Steve Denehan, Cliff Forshaw, Marilyn Francis, Philip Gross, Robert Hamberger, Harriet Jae, Fred Johnston, Denise McSheehy, Fred Melnyczuk, Paul Mills, Sean O’Brien, Terence Quinn and Marc Woodward. There are also reviews by Hilary Davies, Lisa Fishman, David Malcolm, John Greening and Alec Taylor.

To order a copy of issue 45, take out a subscription, or submit your own work, check out www.poetrysalzburg.com There are also opportunities to submit you pamphlet or collection for consideration.

Spelt magazine – for the rural experience

Guess what’s turned up in my local library? A copy of Spelt (issue 4) happily ensconced in the community section. Spoiler alert: I donated the copy to Rottingdean’s small but perfectly formed lending library. Like many others in rural areas, it’s only staffed a few days per week, but we have key cards to let ourselves in if the urge for a book becomes all consuming!

Inside this issue are poems by Claire Booker, Lia Brooks, Yvie Holder, Rosie Jackson, Jackie Wills, John Lanyon, Millie Light, Matt Nicholson and many others.

Issue 4 also contains fascinating articles and prose pieces from a number of Spelt columnists, including Suzanne Iuppa (on Welsh sustainable development), Sierra Kaag (on growing up in rural Idaho), and Sara Stegen (on the mega-thunderstorms of the Hondsrug area of Holland). Spelt editor Wendy Pratt gets to interview Polly Atkins, whose collection Much with Body is out with Seren, and is based on her fascination with Dorothy Wordsworth.

Plus, there’s a poetry prompt from James McDermott on how to include facts in your poems, a verbal walk through the Galloway Forest Park, and some truly evocative images to accompany each of the poems. If you’ve never seen a mole above ground, now’s your chance!

Poems or pieces of creative non-fiction inspired by the rural experience can be submitted until May 1st for the next issue of Spelt. Check the details (and of course buy a copy if you can) at http://www.speltmagazine.com

Poetry Birmingham pulls no punches

It’s a first for me, having a poem published in Poetry Birmingham’s visually elegant and thought-provoking pages. With Naush Sabah and Suna Afshan as editors, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the Asian perspective is vibrantly present. I, for one, found myself both challenged and fascinated by some of the essays written here from a post-colonial perspective.

Naush Sabah’s editorial in issue seven uses her mother’s recipe for karriy/kadhi/curry as an illustration of how immigrants must navigate the tastes of the dominant order, to survive culturally. “Recipes too are crafted things like poems . . . preserved as an element of a culture’s will to survive. A poem might be thought of as a last gasp against oblivion, the printed page a monument to life. . . . It’s why this issue’s cover bears an image of the HMS Hampton Court: the painting preserves the violence of the English at sea. It’s a violence not everyone survives. . . . We can’t read or write in their place but we can read and write in our own with them in mind.”

Poets in this issue include Ali Al-Jamri, Claire Booker, Gerry Cambridge, Kitty Donnelly, Mave Fellowes, Roz Goddard, Nicola Healey, Lucy Holmes, Anhaf Jazeem, Frederico Italiano, Kabir, Phil Kirby, Roy McFarlane, Anita Pati, Stav Poleg, Samuel Tongue and Rory Waterman.

Issue seven offers new perspectives on issues that are often side-lined in mainstream journals. Translating poetry into English has become something of a trend among Anglophone poets. It used to be that translators were virtually bilingual in the language of origin, but many poets now see translation as the act of creating versions from a literal translation prepared by an intermediary. Mona Kareem’s essay ‘Western Poets Kidnap your Poems and Call them Translations’ is an eye-watering shot across the bows to this approach: “I’m not arguing that a poetry translation might win you the Nobel or welcome you into the canon, but I am saying textual violence disturbs my peace and pleasure alike.”

Alongside this intriguingly shot photo ‘Adlestrop Storm’ by Nuzhat Bukhari, you can enjoy a wonderful introduction, by Amit Majmudar, of Kabir’s poetry – the 15th century, illiterate genius who composed poems about his day job (weaving) which resonate with the sublime. Also an essay on translating Sufi poetry, prose responses to Louis MacNeice and Vahni Capildeo, an examination of the jazz poetry of Wanda Coleman, and PBLJ‘s regular column on developing poetic craft, this time with Karen Solie and Daljit Nagra. There’s also a wide range of reviews.

Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal is published twice a year. To buy a copy of issue seven, subscribe to the journal, or submit your work, please visit: http://www.poetrybirmingham.com

Artemis goes Down-Under

Calling all women poets! You have until Feb 28th to send in your poems for the Spring issue of Artemis. It’s a magazine that puts women in the driving seat, both as editors and contributors.

To ensure variety of content, Artemis invites a different guest editor to join general editors Katherine Gallagher and Dilys Wood in selecting poems for the next issue. There’s always a couple of featured poets, in-depth book reviews, plus feature articles around a theme, as well as notice boards, news items and some fun feminist cartoons.

I’m lucky enough to have a poem in the current issue, alongside a fascinating cross-section of poets selected by guest editor Ruth Sharman, including Hilary Hares, Rosie Jackson, Kaye Lee, Jill McEvoy, Myra Schneider, Kate Scott, Penelope Shuttle, Nicola Warwick, Margaret Wilmot, and Veronica Zundel. There are also the winning and commended poems in Second Light’s 2021 Poetry Competition. First prizes went to Cathy Whittaker and Daphne Milne in the Short Poem and Long Poem categories respectively.

“It is easier to muse on the struggle

than to struggle on the muse.”

(Cartoon by Caro Reeves)

The theme for issue 27 is Australian women poets. There are some incisive articles by Australians living in the UK (including Cath Drake of The Verandah fame and Kaye Lee); a closer look at the work of two Australian stalwarts Gwen Harwood and Judith Wright, plus insights by British poet Moya Pacey, who lives and writes in Australia, and offers her view on the improving opportunities for women’s poetry down under, including the marginalised voices of women of colour.

You can send up to four of your poems for possible publication in issue 28 of Artemis. The poetry editor will be Kathy Miles. Submission guidelines can be found at http://www.secondlightlive.co.uk

And if winter is getting you down, why not raise a smile, or even a belly-laugh, by visiting the chuckle-making webzine Lighten Up Online? Edited by Jerome Betts, it’s published monthly, and includes everything from ballads and clerihews, to limericks, satire and rhyming couplets. You can check out two of the smallest poems I’ve ever written at: https://www.lightenup-online.co.uk/index.php/issue-56-december-2021/2206-interval-two-from-musk-oxen-to-marmots and https://www.lightenup-online.co.uk/index.php/isse-55-september-2021/2128-interval-one-a-flurry-of-fours

Channel Magazine + Spelt Advent poetry

We’re several days into Advent already, and I’m enjoying Spelt Magazine’s YouTube calendar with its pithy four line poems popping out from each day’s window. My tiny poem is due on day 14. Check them out here: https://speltmagazine.com/spelt-advent-calendar-2021/

“An issue of a magazine, more so than a collection or anthology, marks its content as belonging to a particular moment in time,” write Channel‘s editors.

“There’s a weightiness to the thought that the work in Issue 5 belongs to a moment in which ways of living and working are hybrid and ever-changing. They align to the flux we find ourselves within, evoking a sense of untetheredness.”

So congratulations to Cassia Gaden Gilmartin and Elizabeth Murtough for bringing together work which reflects the times but avoids the pitfalls of over-stating the obvious. Their biannual print magazine is published in Dublin, and focuses on the interconnection between humans and nature.

Poets in issue 5 include Aiyejinna Abraham O, Pragya Bhagat, Claire Booker, Olga Dugan, Adam van Graan, Cliona O’Connell, Jackson Jesse Nash, Rhona McAdam, Marion Oxley, Cheryl Pearson, Joel Scarfe, Ojo Taiye and Carolyne Wright. Many of the writers are from Ireland, Canada, the United States or the UK, but in this issue alone, there’s also beautiful work from Nigeria, India, South Africa and South Korea.

The magazine also carries three short stories and three essays, including a deeply moving poetic diary of a miscarriage, entitled ‘Snowbird’ by Fergus Hogan.

I love the way Channel launches its issues with a mix of pre-recorded readings by contributors, interspersed with photos, nature videos and art work. You can dip into issue 5’s launch at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie6gJGo7R8I I get to read my two poems at 59 mins 45 secs in.

To order a copy of Channel or submit your work, click on https://channelmag.org/current-issue/

The cover image for issue 5 is by Kevin Mooney: https://kevinmooney.org/

14 Magazine – the Red issue

14 poetry magazine is where lovers of the sonnet go for their fix. Free-verse, Shakespearean or concrete, specular or prose poem, if it’s got 14 lines, you’ll find it on the pages of Richard Skinner’s lovingly compiled, celebration of the form.

After a hiatus of several years, following the retirement of originating editor, Mike Loveday, 14 (Series 2) has risen phoenix-like as a new annual magazine, which now includes a special feature for under-represented voices from community groups and charities across the UK.

Poets in the Red Issue include:

Jill Abram, Clare Best, Dermot Bolger, Claire Booker, Stephanie Bowgett, Angela Cleland, Imogen Cooper, Josephine Corcoran, Charlotte Gann, Robert Harper, Maria Isakova-Bennett, Peter Kenny, Claire-Lise Kieffer, Brian Kirk, Pippa Little, Rosie Miles, Jessica Mookherjee, Cheryl Pearson, Kathy Pimlott, Estelle Price, Elisabeth Sennitt Clough, Sue Spiers, Isabelle Thompson, Harriet Truscott, Julia Webb and Tamar Yoseloff.

“I hope you enjoy the contents of Series Two, Issue 2 of 14 magazine, writes Richard in his foreword. “From Leith Harbour to Whitehall, from the Isle of Man to Crosby Beach to Hope Gap, Middlesex to Suffolk, Montparnasse to Port Antonio, Zimbabwe and beyond, the world awaits you.”

“I’m delighted to showcase work by five women supported by Community Action Sutton, a membership organisation that supports, develops and promotes the voluntary sector in the London borough of Sutton”.

I loved all these showcase poems: such strong and fascinating insights into other cultures. So thank you to Fay Chung, Beverley Dixon, Elizabeth Mudyiwa, Nali Patel and Barbara Watts, for sharing their work.

You can buy a copy of 14 from Vanguard Editions (richardskinner.weebly.com). Plus look out for the next submissions window when it comes up in April.