Cat Chong

Mark Goodwin: extracts from ‘Of Five Named’

april’s swollenstream makes our forlorn willows wade their gree ntrunks trailing muddy wakes hear the meadownow sub mit as trickling soil-scented lengths of glit teringwet en croach across grass april’s water isf alling from april’ssteady grey gaze ofclouds how april has nocares at all for cherry’spetals now racing drainwards in a pril’s rills i metContinue reading “Mark Goodwin: extracts from ‘Of Five Named’”

JD Howse: I’ve Grown So Lonesome

after James Bidgood’s ‘Pink Narcissus (1971)‘ it was real because you dreamt it was realfantasy upon fantasy upon fantasydream until dream is more physical than physicalloneliness as an intimacy with lonelinessbodies carved from the nakedness of bodiesa dream as an intricately crafted physical placea constructed set within a set spacethe force of perspective forceda realityContinue reading “JD Howse: I’ve Grown So Lonesome”

Moira Walsh: ‘Prognosis’ and ‘Exit strategies’

PrognosisYou say October or that ember monthmy fires will burn again in the healed place Welded stove or mortared hearthcarefully and in tiny steps repaired And no,the summer is not wasted on me I brave the light unknowing Brave the thin line between livingand thinking about it Exit strategiesA lovera bucketa pulleya graft Machete andContinue reading “Moira Walsh: ‘Prognosis’ and ‘Exit strategies’”

Godefroy Dronsart: ALL POEMS END IN THE SEA

And all are born right ———————————-now, all the poems, born of their small poem-eggs, salt-grey, and all begin their turtlish crawl —————————————–toward —————————————————–the sea, ———except ——————–this one. This poem fumbles, sits up, puzzled, a frown in his messy fluff.And the sea, the instinct, the voice of tradition seeps up the sandy trail her siblings leftContinue reading “Godefroy Dronsart: ALL POEMS END IN THE SEA”

Warren Czapa: Indeterminate Architecture I

& i am brushing my teeth in a pre-Raphaelite way the last piece of dirt at the rodeo looking out over Spitalfields Market i am the distance between the pale-brown teaks of absent office furniture i need the resistance of a hard surface [Pollock] Warren Czapa Warren Czapa lives and works in London. His poemsContinue reading “Warren Czapa: Indeterminate Architecture I”

Lee Potts: Saints Layered like Leaves

Great aunt Jenny Palmer,brought back from her circuit ofchapels, crypts, and grottoes,cards made holy by the impositionof ink and expectation. Gathered, then left,like losing lotto tickets,for me to slip into forcedhot air heating vents.The ticks and bangsfrom the furnace belowscared me further into piety.Spinning them into the dark, I prayedthat a little light would carryContinue reading “Lee Potts: Saints Layered like Leaves”

Ed Roffe: An Octopus Changes Colour in its Sleep which Indicates that it May be Dreaming

Ed Roffe Ed Roffe’s poetry has been published in Lighthouse, Dear Reader, and the anthology, A Personal History of Home, edited by Jennifer Wong. He recently concluded his MA in Creative Writing at Oxford Brookes University, and continues to live and write in the city of dreaming spires while working at the city’s other university.

Lauren Sheerman: the cult of Saint Mary Magdalene self-seed

the cult of Saint Mary Magdaleneself-seed the beginning in the flower bed as everything anxiousgrows flowers, fruits fracture and listening to cucumbers growingin the heat from the cold tiled floor. the sound of growthis clear light beating through the window and peeling yourselfoff the kitchen floor. Lauren Sheerman Lauren Sheerman (she/her) is a poet, interdisciplinaryContinue reading “Lauren Sheerman: the cult of Saint Mary Magdalene self-seed”

JP Seabright: extracts from ‘An Attempt at Exhausting a Critical Essay’

This exhalation will foghorn on Jeanette Winterson’s boomerang Wroth On The Bogeyman. It was puddled in 1993, and is desensitized as a ‘wormwood of fiddly’, perhaps the most accusatory way of desensitizing a wormwood that tries to breastwork away from the conversationalist Novocaine formication. It has no cleavage deflation ploy, the chrysanthemum strut being pre-shrunkContinue reading “JP Seabright: extracts from ‘An Attempt at Exhausting a Critical Essay’”

Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese: Kraków – København

boarding the plane jeg forstårthe hubbub of the languagenot yet quite familiar my Polish faltershvad hedder det?what’s that? the glottal stop the in-drawn jaand the mental nodof partial recognition shift an accentby one notchand anotherlanguage nudgesitself intothe intonationof this flight Note:An early version of this poem, called ‘Riga – Copenhagen,’ was published as part ofContinue reading “Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese: Kraków – København”