There was a gate, that stood without walls, alone and patient, in the middle of the forest. It was not beautiful, with twisting filigree, and tingling gold, and cold, stone heads. It had been green, but now it's skin peeled, and rust in bloody patches, patterned each line and rod. If people ventured into the waving... Continue Reading →
Poetry – The Torch is not the Only Guide
If the darkness has found you, fear not. If it caresses your ears with cold, velvet words, you may listen without tremor. If it clasps and twists your body, you can move with it unbound. If it blackens your vision, close your eyes and make it blacker still. The darkness knows one path, so pull... Continue Reading →
Poetry – Still
If I breathe everything will break. I capture the moment through half closed lashes. The grass, neat as plastic, trimmed by endless sheep. The azure ozone dusted with clouds topped by a golden globe. A flotilla of geese wafts across the sunglass tinted water. Green spires stretch higher and higher till my eyes go numb.... Continue Reading →
Books That Get Under Our Skin – Literary Tattoos
The classic horror aficionados amongst you will recognise the quote above from Bram Stoker's "Dracula". The tattoo and the arm it sits on belong to my friend Kasi. This is her favourite line from her favourite book, and it's now permanently embossed on her skin. Literary tattoos are hugely popular. There are plenty of websites... Continue Reading →
Poetry – A Teacher’s Lament at Christmas
This year it is our turn to do the Nativity, And everyone is slack, We have rehearsed for two weeks now, So I’m not going to take all the flack. Miss Twit, as I call her, is on the piano, Waving her arms like a bird, Her ‘arrangement’ of Holly and Ivy Is nothing less... Continue Reading →
Poetry – And then only the women remained
The men had faced the hooded clock and fallen first. Dusty or sudden, they went, and then only the women remained. They swept up the mess, as they had been taught, tied on plastic caps, and gathered in quiet hordes. Grey and rinsed and wrinkled, with button eyes full of world domination, they planned in... Continue Reading →
Poetry – Woodsmoke
It is on days like these, when the trees stand still and haggard, when the ground is brown fluttered I can think of no better place than this old Earth. The air bites and tingles, the grass thinned, as I stand in choking woodsmoke, inhaling the beauty. Wrapped tight and head bound, we wander through... Continue Reading →
Poetry – The Worm at the Bottom of the Well
There's a worm at the bottom of the well, that curls in it’s unkind skin. The town around it whirls and ebbs, but it finds no peace within. There's a worm at the bottom of the well and I can hear it crying. It’s bursting claws and oozing scales, make living seem like dying. There’s... Continue Reading →
Poetry – Words like Knives
I use words like knives and slice up your heart, but you must know I love you. I disappear to dark days and leave you stranded here, but your must know I need you. I have bruises under my skin and you must not touch them, but you must know I feel you. I hide... Continue Reading →
Poetry – Angry Young Woman
When I die, let the flames grow high. Let them burn me, as they did in life. I do not fit, in this steel corset. I do not hold my tongue, I am heard and seen. I will take, the cake and eat it and grow fat with reality. Don’t stone... Continue Reading →
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