Katherine Crocker

Mandala

When I am the harbour,
you are the lamp shining
from the lighthouse.
Your beam is a warning.

When I am the lighthouse,
you are the sailor
navigating the shore.
In your hand is the anchor.

When I am the anchor,
you are the boat.
I hold you close
when the storm blows.

When I am the boat,
you are the harbour.
Both of us are nothing
without the water.

I started to write in 2002 after attending Carole Bromley’s York University evening class. I loved it from the start and my first poem was published in 2004. The subjects I write about vary from personal poems about family and loved ones to political narratives, myth and fairy tales. I have been commended in various competitions; was runner up in the Writers Inc, Writer-of-the-Year 2007; published in the Templar Poetry Pamphlet Prize anthology 2009; winner of the Indigo Dreams Pamphlet Prize in 2010; and short-listed for the inaugural Poetry School/Pighog Press Pamphlet Prize in 2013. My first poetry collection, Long Exposure at Cordoba (available on Amazon) was published in 2012 by Indigo Dreams Publishing. The poems are wide-ranging in subject but the themes are about changing landscapes and seasons and include personal narratives as well as poems about myth and folk tales. I am interested in the visual arts and work with Joseph Crocker, an illustrator. He has done seven illustrations in my book, Long Exposure at Cordoba. We are now working on a second collection. Joseph has also done illustrations for music and theatre work. When not writing, I spend my time playing guitar, singing (two CDs to date) and gardening. I also love to travel and take photographs. I had a photographic exhibition at the York City Screen gallery in 2010 entitled, “On the way to Timbuktu – a journey through Mali”, and I won the Explore Worldwide Travel Photograph Competition in 2012. I have lived and worked in York for a long time and although I like to travel to different parts of the world, I love coming home.

I started to write in 2002 and my first poem was published in 2004. The subjects I write about vary from personal poems about family and loved ones to political narratives, myth and fairy tales. I was winner of the Indigo Dreams Pamphlet Prize in 2010; and my first poetry collection, Long Exposure at Cordoba was published in 2012 by Indigo Dreams Publishing. When not writing, I spend my time playing guitar, singing and gardening. I also love to travel and take photographs.

Jill Sharp

In mourning

It’s not his usual evening call, the tender
I loove you, I doo– but a soft lament –
Crr, crr, from the top of the memorial.
Below, at the path’s edge – feathers splayed –
a lifeless woodpigeon, her throat torn open.
I hear my ooh, ooh, added to his,
and stare across the grasses, bluebells,
buttercups… All summer lies ahead,
the earth at its most plentiful,
their young unfledged. He watches, too,
the other pairs on a twilight forage before
that last race through the air, the sudden
plunge into sycamore to roost. Silent now,
he stands like patience on a monument
gazing at a new companionless world
uncertain what he is to be, or do.

Jill’s poems have appeared in magazines including Envoi, Morning Star, Mslexia, Poetry Salzburg Review, The Frogmore Papers and The Interpreter’s House as well as online and in anthologies. She worked for many years as a tutor with the Open University and now lives in Swindon. standing on the Worcester -shire Beacon in the Malvern Hills – Elgar country.

William Bedford

Country Matters

The long and winding road is white with dust,
kicked up on our shoes. No music here
unless you count the birds’ music,
the solitude. Rest your hand on my shoulder.
This is not a time to brood.
This is a time for mood music,
though I prefer words,
those dodgems dancing around the fairgrounds.
In the morning,
your toothpaste will taste of mint,
and we will promise to love each other forever,
without music or highfalutin words.

WILLIAM BEDFORD’s poetry has appeared Agenda, Encounter, The John Clare Society Journal, London Magazine, The New Statesman, Poetry Review, The Tablet, The Washington Times and many others. Red Squirrel Press published The Fen Dancing in March 2014 and The Bread Horse in October 2015.
He won first prize in the 2014 London Magazine International Poetry Competition. Dempsey & Windle published Chagall’s Circus in April 2019. His latest collection, The Dancers of Colbek, was published by Two Rivers Press in January 2020.