Category: Poems

Supermarket Sweep – Roger Waldron

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Here’s a poem by Roger Waldron written in response to John Osborne’s writing exercise. We welcome submissions of poems written in response to any of the writing prompts or exercises on Poetry Non-Stop. You can submit poems here.

Supermarket Sweep

I met my love in the supermarket carpark.
She was reversing her vintage Hillman Minx
with such confidence I had to stand and applaud
She locked it and threw me a glance asked if I’d seen
enough or would I like to see her do her weekly shop
and make comment on the cleaning products she’s considering
before she made her final purchase I asked if I could push
her trolley She asked if I’d got a pound She smiled as I adjusted
my pockets held my hand and led me down the bright lights of the toiletry aisle

Roger Waldron

Wendy Hind – White Flag

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Coming up on the podcast Wendy Hind from Lincoln, Nebraska, shares poems from her Tiny Poetry project and talks about how it was inspired by her son who was born with critical health issues. You can find more poems on her website.

White Flag
If you think I am going
to wave the white flag
you are mistaken.
If you think I am going
to retreat
you are wrong.
I may have to refortify,
I may have to bandage my wounds,
but I am not done fighting,
and I intend to win this war.
I will not surrender
to my pain,
nor to you.

Wendy Hind

Michelle Marie Jacquot – Future Libraries

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Here’s a poem from forthcoming podcast guest, LA-based poet, singer, songwriter and actress Michelle Marie Jacquot. Her upcoming pamphlet DETERIORATE, criticizes and questions the digital age and the effects our modern world has had on humanity. Death of a Good Girl, her first collection, was released in the fall of 2019, becoming a Barnes & Noble poetry bestseller in America. She is currently finishing her next full collection, Afterglow, among many other creative projects.

Future Libraries

I would pay one million anything
to find one human staying sane
My soul is going broke
from meeting bodies missing brains
Robots seeking validation
for tickets they refuse to pay
Who can’t press a heart shaped button
if it’s not of someone’s face

If you’re not on top of someone famous
No one cares about your day
Shut up and show us what you ate for breakfast
Have no opinion on the way
Tell us what you look like
Not a word of what you think
Only tell me what your age is
Your sex
Your height
Your weight

The new training is as follows
I haven’t read it, but neither have they

Step one, forget how to live
Step two, unlearn how to read

I wonder what they teach in schools these days
and what kinds of robots
these robots
will breed

www.michellemariejacquot.com

Ted Sherman – The Gnome

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Coming up on the podcast this week Bristol poet Ted Sherman talks about writing poetry for children and his new collection Dungeon Days for eight to 12-year-olds. Here’s the first poem from the collection, The Gnome, illustrated by Marcus Kielly and designed by Ollie Francis.

The Gnome

I wrote this book you’re here to read
a fact I’m proud of, yes indeed!

It’s true I am a tiny gnome
but the tales contained within this tome
are bigger than you’ll ever find,
these stories here will blow your mind.

I’ve written ‘bout a dungeon deep
where creatures lurk and monsters creep.
Ever since I was a lad
I’ve worked in here, it ain’t half bad

There is one thing I know is true
my tales are fun and fresh and new.
What I give is something real,
words to make you see and feel
all the struggles and the strain
of the average and mundane
the trials and tests which we all face
but set within a magic place.

So, to every girl and every boy
thanks for reading – please enjoy!

Stilton the Scribe
C/o The Dungeon

Adele Cordner – Lament of Mother Earth

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Adele Cordner performs a poem from her new collection The Kitchen Sink Chronicles. The poems, written in the last year, reflect on the strangeness, fear and uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic. But Adele also finds moments of hope and joy in these uncertain times. Look out for Adele on the next podcast when she will be sharing more poems from the collection and talking about how to write poems of hope and perseverance.

Adele’s book is available now. Copies purchased via her website support the charity Crohn’s & Colitis UK www.adelecordner.com

Ella Duffy – Chill

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Ella Duffy reads a poem from her pamphlet New Hunger. Ella draws on mythology and the natural world in her vivid and powerful poems which she will be discussing on this week’s podcast.

Bio: Ella Duffy’s poetry has appeared in Ambit, the Rialto and the North, among others. Her debut pamphlet, New Hunger, was published by Smith|Doorstop in May 2020. Her recent pamphlet, Rootstalk, was published by Hazel Press in November 2020.

Purchase Ella’s book and books by former podcast guests via the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop and help cover the running costs of this podcast.

Abbie Neale – Overwintering

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The first guest of 2021 is Abbie Neale who will be talking about her debut collection Threadbare on the next podcast. Here is one of her more recent poems broadcast on BBC Radio Norfolk and recorded by BBC Voices.

Abbie Neale is a writer, actor and painter. She holds a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from Warwick University, with an intercalated year studying Acting and Scriptwriting at Monash in Australia. In 2019, she won the international prize in the York Mix Poetry Competition and the New Poets Prize run by The Poetry Business, who published her debut pamphlet ‘Threadbare’ this June. Her poetry has appeared in The North, Strix Magazine, Whirlagust, Re-side, Crannóg, Bath Magg and Abridged. 

You can find her online at Instagram: @abbie.neale, Art Instagram: @abbie.neale.art, Twitter: @AbbieeNeale

You can buy Threadbare here. Poetry Non-Stop receives a commission for purchases made via this link.

Helen Ivory – The Hanged Woman Addresses The Reverend Heinrich Kramer

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The next guest on the podcast is Helen Ivory. Here she is reading a poem from her latest collection The Anatomical Venus. Helen’s readings are always captivating. The poems contain striking language and vivid imagery and her explanations about where they came from are fascinating. Helen will be sharing some more poems from The Anatomical Venus and discussing how she wrote them along with how to use primary historic texts to write poems.

www.helenivory.co.uk

Ramona Herdman – Marilyn

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Ramona Herdman

Here’s a poem from upcoming podcast guest Ramona Herdman. Ramona lives in Norwich and her latest pamphlet, ‘A warm and snouting thing’, was published by The Emma Press in September 2019. It is shortlisted for the 2020 East Anglian Book Awards.

Marilyn

How can we blame you for blurring life
with alcohol and barbiturates,
when we all want to rub our faces blind
on your soft stomach, your breasts,

have you breathe sad bourbon fumes
into our mouths, sing a song
then sparkle a quip, tap a tune
in perfect syncopation?

You were born with one bit of luck (your looks)
and you used it like a mountain –
years of work, snow-blindness, crampon hooks,
and the whole of your life climbing.

They tell your marriages like a fairy tale –
the boy next door, the sports star,
the sensitive intellectual –
like counting to three means happy ever after.

Holly Golightly was written for you:
wild animal, living on change
for the restroom. The mean reds, the blues.
Poor slob, poor cat with no name.

Marilyn, you’re the ghost of trying.
Snowfield face and sequinned sheath.
Work and wanting and wanting in that white-out smile.
You make me hold my breath.

I watch you shimmy, in clothes too tight to walk in –
jello on springs, kissing Hitler – in heels that hurt,
thigh sliding round thigh, down the platform.
Hassled by steam and a wah-wah tune. Perfect.

R.Herdman