latest on site:
   Joseph Long
   Peter Ualrig
       Kennedy
   Judith Wozniak

latest new pages:
   Dorothy Yamamoto
   Dennis Tomlinson
   Ruth O’Callaghan (biog)
   Margaret Wilmot
   Maggie Butt

COMPS & CALLS:
Sep25: Enfield

latest comp results:
Frogmore 2025

selection of books:
ppf shop online

previous projects:
Blyth Valley Radio
poetry tREnD

featured poet – Hylda Sims (1932-2020)

Hylda Sims

Seascape with Train

The tide is going out
on salt pastures sand has covered,
the train a long brush-stroke removing itself.

He sits opposite another passenger
a woman unwrapping sandwiches
a faint flexing of lips reveals
her English taste for lonely journeys

his thumbs fondle each other, retreat
inside the cave of his palms
he gazes out of the window, grey eyes
reflecting exteriors:

what a coast! Absolutely flat,
stick-limbed birds picking about
could you understand why they strut
float on waves, suddenly fly…

and the train, obvious old metaphor
shunting, rattling to the terminus,
had we not invented it ourselves
wouldn’t God construct it for us?

She’s finishing her sandwiches
putting the wrapper, scraps of crust
tidily in her bag, brushing at crumbs
if you could fathom a woman’s thoughts…

he needs to float words, find currents,
So strange, the birds, he rasps, she smiles
brows knotting, but polite, Birds? Ah, yes, the birds…
aren’t they… It tells him nothing.

Both of them stare out – the sand is wet
shines a moment as the sea recedes
perhaps the tide is turning
beginning to come in.

The train sings to itself, seems
suspended in empty land running back;
underneath, time gossips, chatters
across the points.

latest on site: Joseph Long Peter Ualrig Kennedy Judith Wozniak

latest new pages: Dorothy Yamamoto Dennis Tomlinson Ruth O’Callaghan (biog) Margaret Wilmot Maggie Butt

COMPS & CALLS: Sep25: Enfield

latest comp results: Frogmore 2025

selection of books: ppf shop online

previous projects: Blyth Valley Radio poetry tREnD