Skeleton Architecture

Well this election is scary. There are so many good people wanting to make an impact and do good things to help people. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could just elect people who could collaborate and find the best ways to do these things together? I fear that's not going to happen, but I hope that something pretty good will. You've got to accentuate the positive, right? I got to go see Amanda Palmer live in Glasgow (definitely not Manchester) recently, and one of the things she was talking about was how she got criticised for making light of a dark situation in her song, Oasis (it's a marvellous song with a joyous video here ). She does. She said to us that where there is darkness it's essential that we go into it and we make light. I'm all about the darkness myself (goth poet ahoy), but she's right, we need light, we need the volte, so if you've got some light to bring to these darkening days, or if you've just got a little black cloud that...

I am hardly new to the party in reviewing Fiona Benson's astonishing second collection, Vertigo and Ghost. It came out from Cape Poetry in January 2019, and has already been talked about a lot. Here's a good review from The Guardian back in January.  - (they were selling it at a discounted price then - worth checking). You don't need me to tell you it is an excellent poetry book.  Fiona has already won the Forward Prize for best poetry collection, giving her £10,000, and the book is also shortlisted for the 2019 TS Eliot prize. I only just got round to reading it as I have a bit of a book backlog - it's a hazard of working in a library! I got it on inter-library loan (thanks Newcastle libraries) because like most libraries at the moment, my local library has had funding cuts and now can't get much poetry at all, so it takes a little longer, but if more of us get poetry out of libraries, it becomes more cost effective to buy the books. Have at it! Anyway, Vertig...

I seem to have been super busy lately, and I'm only just getting the feeling I'm catching up on myself, not that I'll ever get the to-do list finished, but lately I've been wondering if we can't just burn the second page of it. Brexit is still happening, we now have a prime minister my daughter calls Bobby Jobby, and women of colour on the BBC are getting grief for calling Donald Trump racist. FFS. I saw this quote from the previous American laureate Tracy K Smith in The Rialto. She finished her term this year and has been replaced by Joy Harjo. If you agree with her that poetry is a necessary remedy to the darkness you're in, here are some open windows to hurl your poetic light through... The Poetry Village  - they're lovely people, whose imprint, Maytree Press, will be publishing my first chapbook next year!!! They publish two poems a week online, plus gorgeous art. Their window is currently always open. Southlight  - based in the South of Sco...

Back in June 2017 I had a  villanelle  (the poem form, not the Killing Eve character) published in The Interpreter's House #65. I loved The Interpreter's House. Back then they published these beautiful little journals with gorgeous graphics, lovely formatting, and great poems, so I was really interested in 2018 when all changed in the House. The people, the website, the logo, even that beautiful format. The Interpreter's House is now edited by Georgi Gill, assisted by  Andrew Wells  and it comes out three times a year as a freely accessible online magazine. You'll find it  here . It is still beautiful, it still boasts gorgeous graphics, lovely formatting, and great poems, and now it's easier to access. As well as editing The Interpreter's House, Georgi Gill is a PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh, exploring poetry in dialogues about multiple sclerosis. Her chief areas of interest, according to  her website  are "the work of Ciaran Cars...

Toni Morrison has died, which sucks, because she was an amazing writer, but I'm also excited to see the writers who carry her torch forward to light up the world. She taught that it was important to use whatever you had to bring others up with you, and we need so much more of that. So, if you have some inspiration, some creativity, even some little glimmer of magical wierdness, here are just some of the submission windows for poetry that are currently open. Tbh, I have been super busy recently, so I'm not as up to date as I'd like to be, and there are not as many opportunities as usual, so this is all I have for just now, but I'll update it if I come across anything else later in the month. Magazines: The Poetry Village  - they're lovely people, because they've just published one of my poems . Two poems a week online, and it's so worth following. Southlight  - based in the South of Scotland. Obsessed with Pipework  - four issues a year, but submis...

Here are just some of the submission windows for poetry that are currently open. I'd say more about them, but hey, we're all busy, so here's the info: Magazines: BlueHouse Journal - it's brand new and it's open for subs until 1st August. The Poetry Village - they're lovely people, because they're publishing one of my poems soon. Two poems a week online, and it's so worth following. Panoply - open until 28th July, US based. Southlight - based in the South of Scotland. Obsessed with Pipework - four issues a year, but submissions are always open. Anthologies Animal Heart Press has open submission windows for two anthologies, one with poetry from womxn, and one for poetry from Nigerian poets. Windows close on 1st August. Submissions for the  I'll Show You Mine Chapbook competition  close on 10th July, so hurry up for that one. Sex writing only. Free competitions: University of Hertfordshire single poem prize If you've go...

Toffee by Sarah Crossan is supposed to be a Young Adult book, but don't let the teens keep it to themselves. The story is perhaps best introduced by this widely referenced quote from the book itself: I am not who I say I am, and Marla isn't who she thinks she is. I am a girl trying to forget. She is a woman trying to remember. This story is about a teen who feels she has nowhere to go and an elderly woman so used to being unseen that she barely sees herself anymore, and now she's got dementia to deal with. Sarah Crossan is the Irish Children's Laureate, and she writes young adult verse novels, which is not a description I love for this book. It is written in poem-type-things which use poetic aspects, but mainly serve to provide narrative of the story in vignettes, cutting to the important bits. The protagonist, Allison, is not ready to talk about the trauma that has brought her together with the elderly and confused Marla, and one particular incident i...