House Arrest David Harsent writes: Like many writers, or so I suspect, I have found the lockdowns productive, not least the first. There...

Ghost Passage Kent, 553 CE ... here I must record a story which seems more like fable than truth. And yet it cannot be passed over…...

Golden Camel and Innocence The Roman emperor Valentinian (3 July 321 – 17 November 375) is often considered the last great western...

rituals of healing three times daily, our standing appointment behind the store: your hands, the ointment, my tattoo glistening as the...

Image by Rowan Briggs Smith Two years in which a man living as a virtual recluse pretends to be a scientist on the verge on an important...

Shōji The wind is high tonight, gust after gust pounding the tallest branches of the planes that toss like forests of kelp on the ocean...

Basso Continuo A winter field under fog: ghost- sheep drift towards the hedgerow as mist might flow through mist, kites calling through...

Anchorite Do not think that I am ignorant of the body nor that these walls are an analogy. They do not represent God’s love, nor are they...

Churchyard at Stour Provost I'm thinking of the way the spirit is set loose on the dying breath, here where everything looks back at you...

In this, our second Christmas issue, we'd like to start a feature in which we bring back a poem that you might have missed. We like this...

Shutting down for winter The nest is smeared like builders' caulk along the shed's eaves, whorl upon whorl of a white and beige...

Shaman Boy Kills His Father I kick your boots from my feet without connecting nouns to verbs. Combustible, just like the greying sky. I...

Mud Pies When I was small, and still believed in tunnels made of branches and raked leaves, I knew the recipe for mud pies. Dirt in one...

Why Snow Cries When each part touches, divided arms unite in an infinite matrix; apparent strength hiding its true fragility. Only after...

Lichen Once there, lurking beneath the skin, it grows like something akin to the scheming between fungus and bacteria. Lichen, its...

The Red-Haired Man A red-haired man was breathing deeply outside the door. I could see his shoulders slowly rise and fall through the...

Octopus Ride The cage dangles upside down on the tip of a tentacle flung, like a baby's arm, to its steepest sprawl. It idles in the...

Her Place On cold days, from the kitchen window I have seen her, walking the path where her ashes lie. A winter woman, my father called...

Anew Amber glows in its own light a serenade on her palm skin listening to the song of stone a once-tree leaves behind all that is...

In the haar ...horses are grazing on the unfenced cliff. One is two-tailed. They're standing neck to neck, teeth scraping along salty...

A threatening avalanche I'm all hazard, my body urging movement. The river is recalling welders' sparks. Thrawn I ignore the rumour of...

Fireflies I glimpse them through the trees, like candles in an empty church. Tiny radiant bursts climb upwards, dying as they begin. ...

Evening Out The dark green dress tonight with the V neck, the rhinestone earrings and a ring: pure gold. You lead me by the hand into the...

Precious Little Mystery I'm partnered with Leroux. Bad clam, he's locked himself behind his frosted pain. My job is to stand in the...