‘DOG HOUSE’ BY JANE HANFORD ‘Dogs can never speak the language of humans, and humans can never speak the language of dogs. But many dogs can understand almost every word humans say, while humans seldom learn to recognize more than half a dozen barks, if that . . . Then there are the snufflings and […]

‘EMPTINESS-SING HER THE BLUES, 2015’ by DURA Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down the dulcimer. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. MEVLANA JELALUDDIN RUMI

‘THE LIGHTHOUSE’ BY NINA GOLDSMITH ‘At that season those who had gone down to pace the beach and ask of the sea and sky what message they reported or what vision they affirmed had to consider among the usual tokens of divine bounty–the sunset on the sea, the pallor of dawn, the moon rising, fishing-boats […]

‘TIGER LILI’ BY CLEMENCE GASTAN ‘Bringing up the rear, the place of greatest danger, comes Tiger Lily, proudly erect, a princess in her own right. She is the most beautiful of dusky Dianas and the belles of Piccaninnies, coquettish, cold and amorous by turns; there is not a brave who would not have the wayward […]

‘UNTITLED (LEGS)’ BY SONJA DE GRAAF ‘I could of course visualize Lolita with hallucinational lucidity; and nursing as I did a tingle on my breastbone at the exact spot her silky top had come level once or twice with my heart; and feeling as I did her warm weight in my lap (so that, in […]

‘LEI IN PALLORE CERCÒ L’ARIA SEGRETA’ (‘SHE IN PALENESS SOUGHT THE SECRET AIR’) BY FABIANO GAGLIANO ‘The daughters of Mne Seraphim led round their sunny flocks, All but the youngest. She in paleness sought the secret air, To fade away like morning beauty from her mortal day. Down by the river of Adona her soft […]

‘TEMPUS FUGIT 28’ BY ANNA MCNEIL ‘They slept on the abyss without a surge— The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave, The moon, their mistress, had expir’d before; The winds were wither’d in the stagnant air, And the clouds perish’d; Darkness had no need Of aid from them—She was the Universe.’ LORD […]

‘AUTUMN BLOOMS’ BY JULIE-ANN SIMPSON ‘O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stain’d With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit Beneath my shady roof; there thou may’st rest, And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe, And all the daughters of the year shall dance! Sing now the lusty song of fruits […]

‘COME BACK SOON 2’ BY LIAM SYMES ‘Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer utters itself. So, a woman will lift her head from the sieve of her hands and stare at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.’ CAROL ANN DUFFY

“When we first look at an object or image it is already etched with our own personal meaning. That meaning is impossible to remove; it is permanently fixed in our memory. Different people will interpret the same sensory stimulus in different ways, based on who they are and the background factors that influence what they […]