Cups

I've spent a couple of hours on Boyne Berries 20 and it's been lovely. It's amazing to read some of the submissions and to see how talented people are. My cup runneth over. I love learning new things from the submissions, new ideas and ways of looking at things.

I'm looking forward to writing out some of my own ideas at the weekend and to more work on the magazine.

Sandcastles

 

 

I had trouble this morning for a while with finding a title for a poem but it came in the end like a key fitting a lock. I've also started editing Boyne Berries 20, bit of a journey ahead! I spent time by the sea and found a clear stone but not sure if it's unpolished quartz.



People Who Live

People who live by the sea
understand eternity.
They copy the curves of the waves,
their hearts beat with the tides,
& the saltiness of their blood
corresponds with the sea.

They know that the house of flesh
is only a sandcastle
built on the shore,
that skin breaks
under the waves
like sand under the soles
of the first walker on the beach
when the tide recedes.

Each of us walks there once,
watching the bubbles
rise up through the sand
like ascending souls,
tracing the line of the foam,
drawing our index fingers
along the horizon
pointing home.     

Erica Jong                   

The Summer Day

Magic

Winter is Coming

 

Two Peasant Women Digging in a Snow-Covered Field at Sunset, Van Gogh 1890

It has really been a scorcher today, 25 degrees and I'm lucky enough to be on holidays this week to enjoy it. Of course my thoughts are turning to editing and writing. I'm certainly going to have a difficult time declining work for the magazine but the quality and quantity of submission for Boyne Berries 20 has been very high. The submission period ends this coming Sunday at midnight.

I found the Van Gogh poem and I'm going to edit it for myself.  It's more of a winter poem but my niece did choose a wordless illustrated version of The Snowman today in the book shop (She said you can make the story up yourself). I did wonder why you would be digging in the snow? On further inspection apparently the women are digging as winter ends and spring begins.

In the meantime here is a post about a poem Anne Sexton wrote in response to The Starry Night











 

 

Skylight 47

A friend gave me this card at the weekend and I really like it. I do have a Van Gogh poem somewhere, an old one and maybe I can find it if I look, I hope. It's been a bit crazy since my last blog post, but that's life.

I'm delighted to have a poem selected for issue 7 of Skylight 47 which will be launched in September. The magazine is Galway based and edited by Bernie Crawford, Nicki Griffin, Marie Cadden and Ruth Quinlan.

I'm overwhelmed by the response to the submission call for Boyne Berries 20 and I look forward to reading and replying to the submissions over the coming weeks.

Tales from the Forest

Perseus by Cellini

Tales from the Forest  is a quarterly online magazine, with Issue #1 focused on fairy-tales and mythologies. Issue #2 will be... focused on monsters. I'm delighted to have a poem accepted for issue 2, 'Where Monsters Live'. Thanks to Rose Fortune, editor.