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BLACKPOOL POEMS

Blackpool Poems Edited by Alec Newman

NEWTON-LE-WILLOWS

Published in the United Kingdom in 2015

by The Knives Forks And Spoons Press, 122 Birley Street, Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, WA12 9UN. ISBN 978-1-909443-68-6 Copyright â“’ KFS, 2015.

The right of the artists anthologised here to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents act of 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.

CONTENTS Leanne Bridgewater, From Confessions of a Cyclist

5

Fiona Cameron, From Bendigo

7

Finella & Philip Davenport, From The Practical Senior Teacher

9

Kate Duckney, From Ada in the Shells

11

Ann Matthews, From Losing Boundaries

14

Pansy Maurer-Alvarez, From Oranges in January

16

Nicky Mesch, From Ice Bound

18

Yvonne Reddick, From Deerhart

20

Rachel Sills, From Two Hundred Houses

22

Juliet Troy, From Motherboard

24

This anthology offers a selection from ten forthcoming KFS titles, which are scheduled to appear in the winter of 2015 and the spring of 2016. More information about these titles will be available from September 2015 at: www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk

Leanne Bridgewater

Push the sky over watch the stars fall out

Leanne Bridgewater: 1 of 2

5

Leanne Bridgewater One ladle idly cry A lolly looter lullaby By the beecham cough did they Upon a counter they portray In the exotic shop A reptile dysfunction Through the window Two young lads working there Look like they have nothing else Going on in their life.

Ought to get a new hobby, I shout in my head.

Leanne Bridgewater: 2 of 2

6

Fiona Cameron and the doctor finally came at dawn and I know the answer/don’t have to ask/his ashen face/for sure/and turn to the blue light face of my phone/ to confirm the time/not the answer/I know I won’t wake you/you’ve already worked this one out Fiona Cameron: 1 of 2

7

for yourself/we all/already know what the answer is/always will be time warps and forgets/in a week/it’ll all be gone/rush of water through the reservoir/deep/deep/down/fi zzing with energy/dissipating against the rocks/onto the next problem Fiona Cameron: 2 of 2

8

Finella & Philip Davenport

Finella & Philip Davenport: 1 of 2

9

Finella & Philip Davenport

Finella & Philip Davenport: 2 of 2

10

Kate Duckney From Ada in the Shells ask me where the shells are what makes a shell and I will spread like black blood on silk to share is to know to touch hands and tear the bread to merge mouthmarks on the cup of thick ale when

Kate Duckney: 1 of 3

11

I enter the cat’s head it does not curl to a crescent to accommodate it is cat as it has known cat I am cat as I have known cat conscious all the while of myself in its pricked world of twitching grass the fern in its thoughtless snowflaking of cell water light only urges to live as I live in its temple dumbness Kate Duckney: 2 of 3

12

& with stone I do not stay to know what the packed formality of nothing is like the clouds in a flux of shadowplay above the place I shed my own shell as though burnt out on a run way & fleeing as bonnet steam

Kate Duckney: 3 of 3

13

Ann Matthews Two Sentences The weir spills a tilting fringe of white into murky green where shopping trollies rags and footballs snag on ivy and dead willow herb.

Ann Matthews: 1 of 2

14

A sweeping bend a black stain and skid marks through soft grass misshapen railings rooted in river a tree splintered on tight new nettles.

Ann Matthews: 2 of 2

15

Pansy Maurer-Alvarez at another level I dreamt your harsh sounds your final cry for water while the stone finger of the angel was upon your forehead pinning you there to keep you half-curled in the disguise of sleep

Pansy Maurer-Alverez: 1 of 2

16

Pansy Maurer-Alvarez timorous optical ghost criminal windfalls common law a part of each other and others gathered apart from here’s a scrap of paper free will brute force in favor of disobedience Pansy Maurer-Alverez: 2 of 2

17

Nicky Mesch Second Best they say your fourth wife has given you a daughter – a half-sister I’ll never meet odd-looking thing will you hold her

Nicky Mesch: 1 of 2

18

slipped easy into the world will you raise her at the castle at least this time the mother survived will you watch her dance no frost on this one give her a name

Nicky Mesch: 2 of 2

19

Yvonne Reddick Trilobite Curled like a human embryo compound eyes blank with mineral dreams.

Its frail armour still braced to endure the undersea sandstorm.

Scales and ringmail of fragile chitin could not deflect the grinding pressures of silt-layers crushed into shale.

Yvonne Reddick: 1 of 2

20

You can feel the sand’s weight entombing it alive as it rests in your warm, nerved hand.

Yvonne Reddick: 2 of 2

21

Rachel Sills From Two Hundred Houses 3.

Marjorie’s house is decorated in good taste, but there was once a toad in the cellar

14. Helen’s house is a bungalow with an upstairs, but that’s Helen all over 42. Bianka’s house was in the shadow of Old Trafford Rachel Sills: 1 of 2

22

45. Siobhain’s house is open to allcomers, and centres round the big square kitchen 111. Kim’s house has off-road parking, although her car was still vandalised 159. Meena’s house is opposite an old church with a steeple, but the sound of ringing bells is faked 199. Greg’s house was very upmarket, which was a surprise Rachel Sills: 2 of 2

23

Juliet Troy Desert Spray

Dark Lizard Rocks Sand

French Lizard Kamysh Juliet Troy: 1 of 2

24

Six Colour Desert

3 Colour Lizard

P u nk t ma s t e r Palm

Deep Blue Juliet Troy: 2 of 2

25

The ‘Blackpool Poems’ project was funded by Arts Council England’s Grants for the Arts programme. Eleven poets had their work exhibited in the 2015 Blackpool Illuminations, which attracted more than three million visitors.

The original designs for the lights are presented within this pamphlet to commemorate the event, and to create a permanent record.

Each of the poems anthologised here is taken from a forthcoming collection. This is a publishing programme of 10 books, which is also funded by Arts Council England.

Poetry: £3.00

ISBN 978-1-909-44368-6

9 781909 443686 >