K.M.
K.M. Extract – Ch1 The Beginning – The door burst open and she walked in, long brown hair dripping wet, spilling out from under her hood as she took a seat. A couple minutes later a tall man ducked in through the doorway, the wind rushed in behind him and made the tartan curtains whip […]
Dawn McLachlan
Dawn McLachlan FIRST PRIZE BRIAN NISBET POETRY AWARD 2020 DAWN McLACHLAN REVERIE My grandfather told me of a forest three days into the desert reached by long march and cold nights under an ice moon with the endless sky of a billion stars Restless and sleepless under dusty canvas with drifting lilt of desert song […]
John Bolland
John Bolland THIN ICE (For Marc Cornelissen and Philip De Roo, missing presumed drowned 200 kilometres South of Bathurst Island in the Canadian Arctic, 29th April, 2015) We circled for an age to no avail. The place they were, their ‘there’, was not. The sea was flecked with broken pack. The melting ice heaved, shattered […]
Annie Lamb
Annie Lamb wait a bit he sees her watching him now and againin these last days of school, whenever somebefuddled adult opens with ‘now then,what are you planning for the years to come?’– the years! it hangs unspoken in a glance:are we supposed to want to swap one setof chains for fresh ones? fly into […]
Haseley Hinton
Haseley Hinton Extract from Song of the Seacrow by Haseley Hinton Kesh is now Mattouk (head) of the Khoulan monastery in Morth. Ahbrem is a monk at the monastery and Kesh’s long-term friend. The king of Morth has invited Ahbrem to dine with him and the queen. “So this protégé of Kesh’s is an engaging […]
Caroline Fowler
Caroline Fowler CHOICES: winning entry in the Doric section of the Brian Nisbet Poetry Competition 2021 Fyles choices that we mak throu life Kin aft times gar ye greet Fu weel it’s kent we shape oor sheen Wi oor ain twa bauchled feet. Chorus: Stravaiged mony dreich low roads Heich mountain taps hiv […]
Emily White
Emily White Chess Pieces in Dachau – Winning entry in the Brian Nisbet Poetry Competition 2021 I see your craftsmanship inside the glass. Each stroke the blade made you chose with care. I see you chose a general shape of square but curved the chests of knights and noble heads. The Queen is topped […]
Leon Stelmach
Leon Stelmach Lassa Pur Dir Let them talk, we the lovers Star struck, moon mad; What know we, or care, Of creed or colour. Let them talk, of we the lovers All the long day and night. The gossips dare not cry desist Nor have they the right. Let them talk, of we […]
Linda Smith
Linda Smith A Year with my Father 1 In the beginning was my father. I never had any trouble believing in God the father, because I always believed utterly in mine. Like a young gosling I was imprinted on him from birth, from the moment when early in the morning of the day I was […]
Maureen Ross
Maureen Ross Preparatory Purple It’s a quiet occupation – making blackcurrant jelly. The rolling boil of summer topped and tailed slow dripped through muslin, clarified and firmly jelled in safe confine of shining jars all labelled. Who would have thought the stain of summer could be so deep so intense so fit for […]