The UK & Irish Poetry Issue

UK & Irish Poetry Issue

Poetry by Rebecca Perry, Jon Stone, Mike Barlow, Deborah Levy, Crispin Best, Sean O’Brien, Bobby Parker, Jo Bell, Jack Underwood, Rebecca Tamás, Ryan Van Winkle, Alistair Noon, Angela Topping, Emily Berry, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Martha Sprackland, Edward Ragg, Annie Freud, Luke Kennard, Annie Brechin, Justin Quinn, Clare Pollard, David Wheatley, Lindsey Holland, Mark Granier, Kirsten Irving, Daniel Sluman, Richie McCaffery, Zoë Skoulding, and Marion McCready. An interview with Jack Underwood.

Marion McCready

    POEM FOR A GARDEN   Prologue And what do the smash of rhododendrons know? A squall of them spilling over the wall –

Zoë Skoulding

  CRÉTEIL   After Les Choux de Créteil by Gérard Grandval (1969-1974) For Jesús Torres Garcia   it’s the end of the lilac line and

Richie McCaffery

  SOLO   What’s the first thing you do in a house you suspect is haunted? You sing. Singing somehow gives you a protective refrain.

Daniel Sluman

  THE REALISATION   no New York-skyline-moment no dark fumblings smashed pale with ecstasy on the sofa no violets in the morning coffee the two

Kirsten Irving

  A DAUGHTER   ‘Heavens keep the newborn infant from starblasting and moonblasting, from epilepsy, marasmus, and the devil!’     When I’m lying, listening

Mark Granier

    FRENCH   Mr Feutren (Fruity) isn’t from France but Brittany. Important. Make no mistake. Something –– anger? passion? –– has shorn his face

Lindsey Holland

  PARTING SHOT     The light’s just right. If you come outside I’ll take your portraits. I don’t know why but I didn’t think

David Wheatley

    ALTITUDE MIGRANTS   Laid plateau-wide like a tablecloth the snow and winter is set. Blin drift, sneepa, owerblaw, skifter, feucher, skirlie, wauff. Turning

Clare Pollard

  THE HUMAN BOY     howls behind bars at night, in germfree dark. This is called ‘learning to self-soothe’. His comforter’s a polyester dinosaur,

Justin Quinn

  IRISH BAR, PHILADELPHIA   Now they’re postmodern. They talk about the Cause purely to get a rise out of the git who’s Irish and

Annie Brechin

  COMMENT FAIRE L’AMOUR     I dream about the good sex, the kind that makes you come just from the memory. A fuck so

Luke Kennard

  THE AUTHOR     In 1967 Cain killed the author. This was a disaster for everyone. Now language is a prison, true communication is

Annie Freud

    ZALUZIANSKYA   All along the road to Sutton Bingham, I kept saying your name – Zaluzianskya, Zaluzianskya – so as not to forget

Edward Ragg

  THE SOLITUDE OF SEEING   How solitary it is on this uniquely unpolluted morning to watch and to listen not quietly but silently… Their

Martha Sprackland

  ANATOLI BUGORSKI   after the Russian scientist who in 1974 survived 200,000 rads through his head in a particle accelerator accident   Anatoli, I

Doireann Ní Ghríofa

  BIRTHBURST   many months, to float in warmth womb-wet swell stirred with each murmur of her world until surges begin Now the caesarean slice

Emily Berry

I stood at the dangerous shore. / Sleeves rolled up to my shoulders. / My fringe lifted in the wind in a long salute and I pushed it back. / Live your wish, Live your wish, said the sea.

Angela Topping

  TREASON   I’ve always hated Henry, stared out his pompous self-important portrait in Liverpool’s Walker, him tarted up like a wedding cake encrusted with

Alistair Noon

  THE FUZZY DASHES FUZZY DOTS     The fuzzy dashes fuzzy dots tapped out on mitochondrial blots show Lower Saxons steering tractors share a

Ryan Van Winkle

  STOCKING   I licked her down and decided it was good her damp stockings three runs up the side one for each meal it

Rebecca Tamás

    ____________________________________________________________________   From EXTINCT SPECIES OF THE BRITISH ISLES   ____________________________________________________________________   GREY WHALE 500BC     The song is not saying look

Jack Underwood

  THE CAFÉ     The coffee in the café tastes like it first evaporated off the surface of a motorway a hot July ten

Jo Bell

    FAIR PLAY     Men, believe me. If in doubt just look her in the eye and say I want to fuck you.

Bobby Parker

  THANK YOU FOR SWALLOWING MY CUM   I tell cats on the street, ‘Hey kitty, she swallowed my cum!’ I told the shy Indian

Sean O’Brien

    AT THE SOLSTICE     We say Next time we’ll go away. But then the winter happens, like a secret We’ve to keep

Crispin Best

  MY GOD     you have no idea of the distances i would travel just to disappoint you i will even wear a fashionable

Deborah Levy

  AN AMOROUS DISCOURSE IN THE SUBURBS OF HELL   (an extract)   She   i said nothing i said nothing i said looking  

Mike Barlow

  THE DEAL     Ten hours it took, give or take. Longer than brain surgery. But we had a deal. The room exploded with

Jon Stone

  THE ONE AND THE OTHER   after Natural Bust Enlargement with Total Power: How to Increase the other 90% of Your Mind to Increase

Rebecca Perry

  THE EXECUTION OF LADY JANE GREY   Executioner: X Lady Jane Grey: J     X: In your own time. J: Yes. X: You

The Interview: Jack Underwood

  _______________________________________________________________________   All this October B O D Y will be publishing British and Irish poetry. We begin with an interview with poet Jack