Urban Stargazing by Patience Mackarness

When we lived in the Bullring we had balconies in the air. They were our playgrounds, me and Jimmy and John, and all our mates like Kitty next door and Eddie downstairs. The Bullring wasn’t a ring really, it was a long curve of tenements made out of brick and concrete, with a wide balcony that ran past the front doors on all four floors.

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Poems by Sarah Ziman

Sarah Ziman is a poet from Wales who likes cats, crisps, cake, reading and rhyme. She dislikes writing bios. She won the YorkMix Poems for Children Prize 2021, and enjoys annoying her own children by forcing them on nature walks or ‘dragging them into antique shops’. ‘Why did my Brain make me say it?’, her debut collection for children, is coming very soon.

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Poems by Tim Relf

Tim Relf’s work has appeared in such titles as The London Magazine, The Rialto, Under the Radar, The Interpreter’s House, Banshee, Acumen, Bad Lilies, Stand, The Spectator and The Friday Poem.

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Poems by Vicky Gatehouse

Vicky Gatehouse is a zoologist, poet, volunteer tree-planter and children’s writer based in West Yorkshire. Her children’s poems have featured in Tyger Tyger, Dirigible Balloon, The Toy and Pan Macmillan anthologies. Vicky also writes picture books and was recently shortlisted for the Searchlight Awards and runner up for the Write Mentor Picture Book Prize.

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Poems by Debi Knight

Debi Knight is a Neuro-diverse poet and short story writer based in West Yorkshire who considers herself a lifelong student. She writes the life she sees and feels around her – exploring connections between humans, nature and the effects of modern life on all.

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Poems by Laura Theis

Laura Theis’ work appears in  Poetry, Oxford Poetry, The Caterpillar, Magma, Rattle, Tyger Tyger, Aesthetica, iamb, etc. Her Elgin-Award-nominated debut how to extricate yourself (2020), an Oxford Poetry Library Book-of-the-Month, won the Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize. A Spotter’s Guide To Invisible Things (2023) received the Live […]

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The Simple Things by Georgia Boon

The car is thudding in and out of holes in the road. I can’t tell where anything is until I’m driving over it. But I’m used to that. We haven’t had streetlights since I was a kid, and they stopped making headlamps a decade ago. No-one goes out in the dark apart from me.

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Poems by Jane Burn

Jane Burn is an award-winning poet, artist, poet and hybrid writer. She is a working-class person with autism. Her work is widely published and anthologised. Her current collection, The Apothecary of Flight, is published by Nine Arches. 

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House Anthems by Ralph Dartford

The final collection in Ralph Dartford’s ‘Recovery Trilogy’ sees the poet meditating on the tragic death of his beloved brother, Joseph, and how he lived in the mythical house of England: a nation of waving flags seen through soft focus sunlight.

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Poems by Penny Sharman

Penny Sharman started writing poetry in her fifties. She is inspired by wild landscapes and relationships between the seen and unseen. She is a published poet, photographer, artist and therapist. Penny has an MA in Creative Writing from Edge Hill University, has had poems published in The North, Mslexia, Candlestick Press and many others.

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Poems by Andrea Holland

Andrea Holland has two collections of poetry, ‘Broadcasting’, which won the Norfolk Commission for Poetry and ‘Borrowed’ (Smith/Doorstop) a first-stage winner in The Poetry Business contest. Individual poems appear in journals and anthologies.

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Silver Linings by Liam Hogan

The horse pulled up with a snort in front of the next dwelling on their list. The wizard, dozing in the cart behind, tugged the floppy hat from her eyes and did a double blink. An unusual place to live. But this was the Enchanted Forest, where building permission was granted retrospectively by council workers wary of the threat of curse and counter curse.

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Poems by Wendy Dossett

Wendy Dossett lives in rural Eryri. She’s fascinated by the experiences classified in some forms of Buddhism as craving, desire and aversion. She’s drawn to earth-bound and narrative sources of healing and hope that fully acknowledge the realities of suffering and inadequacy.

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Poems by Arlette Manasseh

Arlette Manasseh likes films, novels, poetry and chocolate. Some of her favourite reads are middle grade verse novels. These poems are taken from a verse novel she is writing about a thirteen year old girl called Breeze who lives in a small coastal town, where bullying has become a big problem.

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Poems by Matt Gilbert

Matt Gilbert is a freelance copywriter. Originally from Bristol, he currently gets his fill of urban hills in South East London. He has had poems published by Acumen, Atrium, Finished Creatures and The Storms among others. He also writes a blog about place, books, poetry and other distractions at richlyevocative.net.

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The Pros and Cons of Conditioning by Laura Besley

I research how to make my boys’ hair grow faster: I wash it in special shampoo and ignore them when they complain I rinse it in cold water; I make them take additional vitamins after breakfast and massage their scalps while they’re watching TV; I buy a special brush with bristly bristles to distribute their natural oils and I do this two, three, four times per day.

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Poems by Hannah Stone

Hannah Stone lives in Leeds, where she is involved in various community poetry events, including as convenor of the poet-composers forum for Leeds Lieder, compere of the monthly Wordspace open mic in Horsforth and free lance work as poet-theologian for Leeds Church Institute as well as events at East Leeds Community FM Radio.

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Tough Love by Ava Sedgwick

“You need fattening up.” Mrs Murphy slapped another ladleful of boiled turnip onto her grown son’s plate. “Anyone would think I wasn’t feeding you.”  Three months ago, when Alan returned to the nest, she bought him a set of matching shirts with the same confidence as she used to buy his nappies.

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Poems by Sinéad Callanan

Sinéad Callanan is a teacher and poet from Limerick, Ireland. She is currently completing a Masters in Children’s Literature and Media. Her work has appeared in PaperBound Magazine, Little Thoughts Press and Paper Lanterns. Even more of her work has gone into making her friends, family and young pupils laugh.

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Poems by Steve Denehen

Steve Denehan lives in Kildare, Ireland with his wife Eimear and daughter Robin. He is the author of two chapbooks and five poetry collections. Winner of the Anthony Cronin Poetry Award and twice winner of Irish Times’ New Irish Writing, his numerous publication credits include Poetry Ireland Review and Westerly.

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Poems by Mark Bird

Mark Bird is a children’s poet and teacher. He was born in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire and now lives in London. Mark’s debut picture book, ‘Halloween Date From Hell’ came out in October 2022. Mark has featured in The Caterpillar, Gill Education’s ‘Over The Moon’ series, Brian Moses’ ‘The Best Ever Book of Funny Poems’ anthology and many magazines.

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