Ever since I stumbled on Sonnet Mondal’s poems, I have been captivated by their stunning simplicity and words evoking a magical experience. That he achieves this consistently is breath-taking. In this occasional series, our aim is to connect you with some of these exceptional beauties I come across. These are rare, as they don’t…

Inspired by a photograph by Eve Hall Snr. We must embrace complexity, and evolve to meet the challenges of our time A person who understands that all people are members of his body is a sound person to guide them. Paraphrased from the Tao Te Ching by Phil Hall The self emerges from stories.…

John Grant is a valued member of our New Malden Writers’ Group. His poems are clear in their ideas and accomplished in form. They do what they say on the tin! We always start with a poem by John and end with a poem by John because they put the New Malden Writers in…

Gargoyles in Bristol. Money going up may not trickle down again. Photograph Phil Hall                                         At the bathroom door Drying my handsI saw my grandfather’s hands againthe deltas there, the sandbanksspots and blotches in the shallows. I saw them withdrawingto the silent island of himselfand mine still going out to sea. And you turningat…

Tejidos Songhay [Mali] [Colección Fondo Kati]. by Ismaël Diadié Haïdara To Paco Montañés, painter Theme and Variations – I 1 Tebræ are two-verse poems (with 6 feet in the first verse and 8 in the second), shorter than haikus, initially created by Hasaniya-speaking women of the Sahara Desert. They are like objects whose structure repeats…

Photo by Murry Lee Dear Lieutenant Yamaguchi I am ashamed to admit this but I simply have to tell someone. I always considered you a friend during the war, not just my superior, and I trust your judgement. I have been acting as a translator for the Americans since shortly after the surrender. Well…

Climate writes the recipe by Arun Kapil We don’t really do heat over here. I grew up in Britain, now live in Ireland and I can report that both nations react to a heatwave with admirable determination and almost no practice. The thermometer nudges past twenty-five degrees and, almost overnight, we become a nation…

Arina Krasnikova on Pexels Be in Awe Be in awe: language was given to usWhat a marvellous neural mechanismWhat a way to send ideas through the air What magnificent undulations, these that binddeep roots without our touchingWhat invisible magic in the frontal lobeWhat a way to illuminate the intricate tapestryof the exocerebrum Marvel at…

Charles Cowlam. Charles Family Photographs, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina. by Peter Cowlam The full title of Frank W. Garmon’s sweeping account of the career of Charles Cowlam is A Wonderful Career in Crime: Charles Cowlam’s Masquerades in the Civil War Era & Gilded Age. Garmon explains in his preface to the…

David Yip. Courtesy of the Yip Family by David Yip After working away from my home town, Barrow-in-Furness, since I was 17 years old, I return to work as a General Manager in a busy bar/restaurant. (Little do we know what is coming around the corner). The place is on the high street and…