Current issue!
Acumen 113 – September 2025
Acumen 113 showcases poetry from across the UK, New Zealand, the USA, Canada and Europe, with new work by John Greening, Jan FitzGerald, Rosie Jackson, Gill McEvoy, Patrick Osada, Edmund Prestwich, Martin Reed, Jeremy Robson and Penelope Shuttle among many others. The poems open windows onto memory, resilience, love, grief, history and the natural world and much more, with unexpected turns of thought. Duncan Forbes examines Forms and Freedoms, Peter Eagles commemorates the centenary of Sergey Esenin, and Myra Schneider, in interview with David Perman, reflects on the influences, collaborations and discipline that sustain her writing. Translations of Joachim Ringelnatz and Victor Hugo appear alongside reviews of the latest poetry books and spirited reader responses, making this issue a vibrant exchange between established and emerging poets across continents.
An annual subscription to the Acumen Journal covers 3 issues packed with great poetry, plus stimulating reviews and essays. It represents great value for money for either yourself or as a thoughtful gift for a poetry-lover.
Editorial
Welcome to Acumen. Do check out our pages and great poems.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF ACUMEN. And a special thank you to those of you who have renewed your subscriptions and have added a donation, so that we can keep the price lower. If you haven’t renewed your subscription for Acumen, please do so here.
Thank you to everyone submitting poems and prose. Acumen has been experiencing a wonderful increase in submissions lately, and we’re grateful for the interest in our magazine. Thanks for your patience while everything is carefully reviewed. Please remember we do not accept simultaneous submissions, but we consider postal and electronic submissions. We do, however, encourage contributors to carefully review our submission guidelines to ensure their work aligns with what we publish – poetry and prose on poetry-related topics, and not short stories. To prepare your submission and for more information please see here.
We’re excited to share the latest Acumen with you, though we must apologise for recent postage issues. Unfortunately, some issues of Acumen have disappeared in Royal Mail. If you’ve experienced any delays or problems, please do let us know. Despite this, we’re committed to ensuring that everyone can enjoy the exceptional work featured in the latest edition. PDF copies are available, plus a very small number of printed copies which we are sending to those whose copies have gone astray. Please contact the Acumen editor for more information.
Thank you for your continued interest in Acumen and the world of poetry. As Emily Dickinson said, ‘I dwell in possibility’ – and it is through your support that we continue to explore the endless possibilities of poetry.
I end with lines that have been attributed to Yeats, but more likely originated from English author and playwright, Eden Phillpotts: ‘The universe is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.’ I hope that the coming months give you magical things that your senses can sharpen to find, especially through the troubled world that often surrounds us.
Guest Poems and Young Poets
Acumen’s aim is to be wide-ranging, publishing contemporary poets both known and unknown, relying on the strength of the poetry rather than the name behind it.
Selected poems from each issue are posted on the website as guest poems for the week. We add photographs and very short biographies – a thing we don’t do in the magazine, preferring at that stage to let the poems speak for themselves.
Annie Kissack
Annie Kissack is from the Isle of Man. A teacher and fluent speaker of Manx Gaelic, she is also a song-writer for her own successful Gaelic choir. Coming late to poetry, in 2018 she won the title of Fifth Manx Bard, subsequently being published online and in magazines and anthologies at home and further afield. Her first poetry collection, Mona Sings (2022), reflects her interest in the stories, folklore, landscape and languages of her native island. This poem is from Acumen 113.
Jonathan Steffen
Jonathan Steffen read English Literature at Cambridge, receiving the King’s College James Prize and the Cambridge University T.R. Henn Prize, both for Creative Writing. On graduating, he was awarded a Harper-Wood Travelling Studentship for English Poetry and Literature by St. John’s College, Cambridge. His poems, short stories, book reviews, articles and translations have appeared in a wide range of anthologies and magazines. His poetry pamphlet The Colour of Love was published by Acumen Publications in 2011. This poem is from Acumen 113.
Delilah Dennett
Delilah Dennett is a poet, playwright and performer from the UK. Delilah Dennett is a writer and performer based in the UK. Her work has previously featured in The Dial, Westerly Review and Heroica, amongst other publications. She is a member of the Roundhouse Youth Advisory Board 2024 -25, shaping their creative engagement programme. Her poem ‘Memoria’ was shortlisted for the Renard Press Building Bridges Poetry Award. You can follow her on Instagram at @delilahdennett.
Aman Alam
Aman Alam is an Indian student and poet. He writes because some thoughts are better off as poems. His poems have found space in Rattle, Obsessed with Pipework, Lake Poetry, Vanity Papers, and others.
We love to publish new and established writers, in our journal and/or on our website and we are proud to have discovered many new voices.
We welcome unpublished poems, translations of poems, articles and debate on poetry covering a wide variety of topics and with different writing styles.
Find out how to submit your poems.
Poetry and Prose
Books and publications
We have a range of quality poetry publications for sale which we hope you will enjoy reading including hardbacks, paperbacks, pamphlets and single issues of the journal.
Electrifying Announcement!
Acumen is among the longest-running literary magazines today.
Patricia Oxley started Acumen in 1985 armed with only an electric typewriter, and without subscribers or contributions. Since then it has grown to one of the country’s leading literary journals.
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