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.

Finished Creatures rises to the surface

Issue 5 of Jan Heritage’s lovingly produced Finished Creatures, includes the work of 60 poets, each offering a different interpretation on the theme of ‘surface’. I was delighted to read my contribution at the magazine’s Zoom launch this month, along side stablemates Clare Best, Carole Bromley, Susannah Hart, Cheryl Moskowitz, Paul Stephenson and many others.

The full roll call includes Dean Atta, Judy Brown, Matt Bryden, Oliver Comins, Claire Dyer, Charlotte Gann, Maria Isakova Bennett, Karen Izod, Maria Jastrzebska, Tess Jolly, Lisa Kelly, Jane Lovell, Antony Mair, Jenny Mitchell, Fiona Moore, Jeremy Page, Penelope Shuttle, Richard Skinner and Helen Tookey.

“The theme of Surface invited so many beautiful and intelligent responses: new landscapes, delicate textures and intricate stories of concealment and exposure,” writes editor, Jan Heritage, in her foreword. “This selection of poems asks the reader to move from one environment to another and to continually readjust the focus as we stand by icy foreshores and frozen lakes, or on the crust of the Earth with its ancient fractures and secrets: as we climb mountains and fells, or look out to sea ‘keeping watch for the future.’

“Our eye is drawn from infinite horizons to the miniscule detail of fungi, moss, mulch and skin. We are weathered, windswept and often drenched as the climate and seasons change; sometimes we are invited to curl up and hide.

“These are poems that ask us to get soaked and muddy; to dive below the surface of rivers, oceans and dreams; to excavate for lost people or to hear the hearbeat of the not yet born. We are asked to look closely, to look again and, as Lisa (Kelly) says, ‘Consider’.”

To buy a copy of Finished Creatures (issue 5) or to subscribe to the biannual magazine, please visit: www.finishedcreatures.co.uk The next submissions window will open early in the new year, with a new theme, so keep your eye on the website for news.

Pandemic Poetry

How interesting it’ll be when we can look back at the Covid-19 pandemic and evaluate how (if at all) it’s made permanent changes to our lives. At the moment, first responses are all we have. Poetry anthologies have bloomed, and I’m happy to have a poem in The Poetry Kit‘s online anthology Poetry In The Plague Year, which includes work from nearly 600 poets in 21 countries.

Each poem is dated by when it was completed, so you can trace the development of ideas chronologically through the progression of the pandemic.

Hearty congratulations to Jim Bennett at The Poetry Kit for putting together such an inclusive anthology.

You can view all of the poems for free at: https://www.poetrykit.org/py/00335.htm

It’s also worth checking out the website for their on-line poetry courses. They’re fantastic value for money. I’ve taken part in two (ekphrastic poetry, plus writing from science) and can recommend them.

Not surprisingly, Covid-19 features strongly within the pages of Caduceus, a health and healing magazine for which Dawn Gorman has recently set up a poetry page. As well as being a fine poet in her own right, you may also know Dawn as the co-host of The Poetry Place show on West Wilts Radio. You can listen to the show live on the last Sunday of the month, or catch up any time on ‘play again: https://westwiltsradio.com/shows/the-poetry-place/

Issue 105 contains poems by Jean Atkin, Claire Booker, Pratibha Castle, Cora Greenhill, Richard Skinner and Lynne Wycherley, on the theme of ‘The Oneness of All’.

“Many people have recently turned for sustenance to Nature’s grace,” writes Dawn in her introduction. “Here, two poets lean against oak trees: the synchronicity is no surprise.”