Competition
The Oldie
Article
Competition
Aug 25, 2021
IN COMPETITION No 270, you were invited to write a poem called The Hall. Heather Oxley began, ‘Our halls are gateways to our outside selves.’ John Oldershaw’s narrator started in medias res: ‘“It’s the hall that sells the house!”/ Said Mr Valentine,
2 min read
Two Poems by Joseph Brodsky
Literary Hub
Article
Two Poems by Joseph Brodsky
May 12, 2020
7 min read
Until The Sea Closed Over Us And The Light Was Gone
The American Poetry Review
Article
Until The Sea Closed Over Us And The Light Was Gone
Jul 1, 2020
—Dante, Canto XXVI But if the truth is dreamed of toward the morning—El Paso Although it was really last summer’s song,all this summer Despacito played on as slower then I turned myself to gazeupon Juarez. The summer everything hurts my eyes, a dozen
6 min read
Tessa Castro
The Oldie
Article
Tessa Castro
Jun 1, 2022
IN COMPETITION No 280 you were invited to write a poem called Cutting. My cue was a 19th-century Norwegian painting I’d seen of a woman cutting bread. You widened it to cutting hair and grass, being cut down to size and cutting people dead in the str
2 min read
Bard In The Woods
Great Walks
Article
Bard In The Woods
Nov 30, 2020
4 min read
Tessa Castro
The Oldie
Article
Tessa Castro
May 3, 2023
IN COMPETITION No 292 you were invited to write a poem called The Walk. How good and numerous were your entries. Congratulations to those printed below, each of whom wins £25, with the bonus prize of The Chambers Dictionary going to Anthony Young. I'
2 min read
5 Poems to Appease the Infamous Welsh Christmas Horse Skeleton
Literary Hub
Article
5 Poems to Appease the Infamous Welsh Christmas Horse Skeleton
Dec 19, 2017
3 min read
Tessa Castro
The Oldie
Article
Tessa Castro
Jun 30, 2021
IN COMPETITION No 268, you were invited to write a poem with the title The Writing on the Wall. Anthony Young observed of the makers of those great spray-paint tags that we see from trains, ‘They paint their aims with aerosol,/Abiding to the protocol
2 min read
The Island (catullus 64)
The American Poetry Review
Article
The Island (catullus 64)
Mar 1, 2022
Back then the evergreens tumbled downriverfrom the glaze-white runoff to the boot-stirred puddlesof amber young men who fulfilled our destiny,who clambered into ships, on horses, and in wagonspainting the newfound landscapes ours.Our calling was nobl
9 min read
Four Poems
The American Scholar
Article
Four Poems
Sep 4, 2018
In London. England. Who knows why?Perhaps this rumpled guyFrom central casting or a page of Dickens.He’s taking ordinary usTo haunts of the illustrious,Where even dull pulse quickens. A red felt hat’s dark fingered brim,Food-spotted vest are—him.A mo
4 min read
Tessa Castro
The Oldie
Article
Tessa Castro
Jul 26, 2023
IN COMPETITION No 295 you were invited to write a poem called Roots. Cherry MacGregor started off in medias res: ‘Has the vine died? My husband had asked,/ As we enjoyed lunch in the garden.’ Another excellent opening came from DM Davis: ‘Roots, oh m
2 min read
Tessa Castro
The Oldie
Article
Tessa Castro
Feb 9, 2022
IN COMPETITION No 276, you were invited to write a poem called The Carpet. Dan Rubinstein told of a rock band’s drummer stopping on a tour to buy some carpet to stop his bass drum wandering. Dorothy Pope’s poem was about being ‘coventrated’, carpet-b
2 min read
On Celtic Storytelling, From the Bardic to the Mythic
Literary Hub
Article
On Celtic Storytelling, From the Bardic to the Mythic
Jul 17, 2020
4 min read
Competition
The Oldie
Article
Competition
Mar 8, 2023
IN COMPETITION No 290 you were invited to write a poem, Spring Cleaning, as an acrostic with the first letter of each line spelling out the title. I don't know if the extra requirement made the poems better, but rhyme and metre usually do. Tony Bartl
2 min read
Jan Morris
The Paris Review
Article
Jan Morris
Jun 15, 2018
I have always rather envied the poet Ovid, who was banished from Rome by the emperor Augustus, you may remember, to a remote place called Tomis on the shores of the Black Sea. There he died, ten years later, and his exile has gone into legend and int
17 min read
All in a Golden Afternoon: Remembering Cambridge
Victoria
Article
All in a Golden Afternoon: Remembering Cambridge
Jul 9, 2019
5 min read
Portrait Of An Island
Orion Magazine
Article
Portrait Of An Island
Jun 3, 2021
AN ISLAND provides refuge for refugees. Their roofs, tablecloths, and bedsheets wave from the port’s breeze. Temporarily permanent, adjacent to the water, each tent kneels behind the mayor’s office and in front of a tenth-century castle. The locals p
4 min read
Meet Your New Favorite Poet
The Paris Review
Article
Meet Your New Favorite Poet
Feb 20, 2019
6 min read
Mountain Time
The American Poetry Review
Article
Mountain Time
Jan 1, 2021
In the air you don’t know who you are or where My own self feels it is in wind being born These are currents a man made one eighth of smokeless fire fears but chooses A path south from Anchorage to a Mountain House Ungovern the northern land to pass
10 min read
Tessa Castro
The Oldie
Article
Tessa Castro
Mar 9, 2022
IN COMPETITION No 277 you were invited to write a poem called Morning Sounds. The entries were vivid: half domestic, half outdoor. Tim Lloyd observed that ‘A bin lorry approaching in reverse/Sounds like an asthmatic seal.’ Liz Piper remembered, durin
2 min read
I remember Pendomer
Country Life
Article
I remember Pendomer
Feb 17, 2021
SOME years ago, on holiday in the Highlands, the dynamic Australian art dealer Rebecca Hossack asked me whether I liked driving. I thought about it. I said I liked being able to look at the changing pageant out of the window, I liked having a comfy c
2 min read
Maxim Osipov
The Paris Review
Article
Maxim Osipov
Mar 9, 2021
Vnukovo is the smallest, most intimate of Moscow’s airports, and when your flight arrives—especially if it arrives on Saturday at eleven at night—you don’t expect to see much of a crowd. Stamps in the passport, baggage claim—quick and easy. “Where ar
14 min read
On The Nature Poetics Of The Great Nan Shepherd, Bard Of The Highlands
Literary Hub
Article
On The Nature Poetics Of The Great Nan Shepherd, Bard Of The Highlands
Oct 7, 2020
14 min read
Two Poems
The American Poetry Review
Article
Two Poems
May 1, 2019
Like the way Galway Kinnell fell asleep in 1968 in Athens, Ohio,reading from a wadded-up new poem pulled from his pocket,started too late at night the night before—the occasion, exactly, the Ohio Poetry Circuit,calling for, often, two readings a day,
2 min read
Stop Hating on Adjectives!
The Millions
Article
Stop Hating on Adjectives!
Jun 12, 2019
A common admonition in creative writing pedagogy is, “Cut as many adjectives as possible.” I propose that this rule springs from mere prejudice. The post Stop Hating on Adjectives! appeared first on The Millions.
7 min read
It’s Come to This
The American Scholar
Article
It’s Come to This
Sep 1, 2021
16 min read
Five Poems
The American Poetry Review
Article
Five Poems
Jan 1, 2022
The painting is of a door, its wood so warpedwith moisture it cannot close. It stays ajar leaving a sliver of light—enough to suggestsomething sweet and almost unreachable behind the door—and you sit in yourroom working on the bills or those comforti
4 min read
Must-Read Poetry: September 2017
The Millions
Article
Must-Read Poetry: September 2017
Sep 11, 2017
Isn’t that one of the purest goals of poetry—to justify our breaths? To recognize that we matter? The post Must-Read Poetry: September 2017 appeared first on The Millions.
8 min read
Tessa Castro
The Oldie
Article
Tessa Castro
Aug 24, 2022
IN COMPETITION No 283 you were invited to write a poem called Things Fall Apart. Martin Brown wrote some close parody of Yeats, and when his shopping bag burst, ‘The best splat all the kitchen, while the walls / Are caught with passionfruit at veloci
2 min read
Autumn Has Always Been Poets’ Season
Literary Hub
Article
Autumn Has Always Been Poets’ Season
Oct 23, 2017
6 min read