In The Poetry

‘At the Grave of Asa Benveniste’ – Asa Benveniste was a Jewish poet from New York who spent the last years of his life in Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire and when he died in the early 90s his widow, Agneta Falk, managed to fulfill his wish that he should be buried in Heptonstall churchyard and [...]

‘At the Grave of Asa Benveniste’ – Asa Benveniste was a Jewish poet from New York who spent the last years of his life in Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire and when he died in the early 90s his widow, Agneta Falk, managed to fulfill his wish that he should be buried in Heptonstall churchyard and [...]

Birmingham River

Where’s Birmingham river? Sunk.
Which river was it? Two. More or less.

History: we’re on our tribal ground. When they
moved in from the Trent, the first English

entered the holdings and the bodies of the people
who called the waters that kept them alive

Tame, the Dark River, these English spread their works
southward then westward, then all ways

for thirty-odd [...]

Hypnopaedia

As I expounded The Man With the Blue Guitar
my students outwitted me.

Eyes glazed, or averted, they declined
to pick up a single question,
forcing me to drone alone. I was so boring
I fell asleep.

Then a little way off
through the opaque white screens in my head
I started to make out a voice.
It was expounding The Man With the [...]