Editorial
Poems: Christopher Beck, Daichi Ishikawa, Shoaib Rizvi, Alessio Zanelli, Stephen Capus, Abeer Ameer,
Maxine Rose Monro, Paul Stephenson, Jennifer Johnson, David Perman, Michael Henry.
Hounded – Roger Harvey.
Poems: Nurain Oladeji, Bert Molsom, Elizabeth Birchall, Patricia McCarthy, David Callin, Lynne Wycherley.
In Search of the Writer’s Physical Voice ‒ Martin Jago.
Poems: Terry Quinn, Norton Hodges, Patrick Osada, Colin Bancroft, Alice Harrison, Michael Jennings,
Fred Johnston.
Obituary – Leah Fritz.
Poetry in Translation: Hanny Michaelis (Trans. Judith Wilkinson), Raine Maria Rilke (Trans.Wilf
Deckner), Theodor Storm (Trans. Michael Gittins).
Responses.
Poems: Jeff Phelps, Colin Pink, Matthew Page, Leland James, Mirkka Jokelainen, Laura Potts, David
Heidenstam, Elizabeth Barton, Jethro Dykes, Carol Harte, Madison Fearn.
Landscape in Poetry ‒ Paul Gittins.
Poems: Tom Dwight, Philip Dunkerley, Annie Maclean, Innes Manders, Christopher Southgate, Bridget
Thomasin, Jan Fitzgerald, Daichi Ishikawa, Tony Hendry, David Heidenstam, Tim Dooley.
Reviews: Melinda Price Wiltshire, William Bedford, Malcolm Bradley, Glyn Pursglove.
Poetry Comment.
Acumen International Poetry Competition Results
Editorial:
Over the passed month, I have been receiving poems from poets who are self-isolating. At first, the input was, like the virus itself, slow, a submission here and there. But as the virus began to get a hold and more poets began to self-isolate or be at home all day with little human contact the poems have started to flow faster and faster.
What has been interesting is the change in the poetry. There have been very few ‘clever-clever’ poems which needed the cryptic brain of The Times crossword solver. They have been mainly poems of human warmth and contact expressed in many ways. They have high-lighted the real human, non-commercial values in life, the spiritual, the warm, the humanity of man towards man. Of course, there are always those who milk any situation for their own good, but these people have been shamed by others who only have the common good at heart.
And in these dark times, as many have written in their emails, we need something to cheer us up. So there are some humorous poems within Acumen’s pages. Not all of us have the same sense of humour, but I hope you find at least one to put a smile on your face.
I hope that when this emergency has cleared we can all see and appreciate what really matters in life. William often said to me that he thought Mother Nature or Gia or the Spirit of the Universe (he was nothing if not broad-minded) would show that we should all lay aside our selfish ways, and find new and better ways of being. At least two years ago he forecast a plague of some kind which would remind us all that Nature was stronger than human greed. Flooding, fire, plague of locusts and now coronavirus, how much more do we need reminding of the perils to our lives on this planet? Poetry is one way towards doing this.
Can I just take this opportunity to thank all Acumen poets and subscribers for the many kind words, cards and emails I have received over the past months. They have all been sincerely appreciated.
