Forge Zine Summer 2021 Edition 12

FORGE ZINE Summer Edition 21

@ForgeZine @ForgeZine @forgezine

Photo by Arun Paul Kapur

Editors welcome Hello and welcome to a restriction free summer (fingers crossed)! We have some great things for you in this edition, some old faces and some news ones. We have the second in her four part series, Twice Told Tales, from Amy Bobeda (pg4). A delicious and spicy recipe from Errol's Vintage Edibles. Now that it's summer we agreed that it would just be mean of us to leave you without a wonderful cocktail recipe, so Errol has concocted a wonderful thirst quenching drink for you (pg6).

As for the new faces we'd like to point out Arun Paul Kapur's amazing photograph on our front cover, a beautiful addition to our little Zine. And as you have a read through I am sure that you'll be able to spot our new poets in the field.

Our final bit of exciting news is that our Events Page FINALLY has things on it again!! Including our very own Yorkshire Day: Night of Arts taking place on the 1st August (yes that's Yorkshire Day!) at The Crescent in York. You can find tickets through their website or our social media accounts have links to it. Not only will there be live music and performances but pretty art and books too so bring hard cash to treat yourself!

E. Hartley Smith

Teri Anderson

Bee Caste To be a bee, a worker bee In service of the hive, The Queen To make that sweet, sticky honey By expression of that key gene Organized civilisation All fixed at birth, they know their place Not Queen? Eternal damnation Is this right? We are the same race But we will never be the same Nutrition, epigenetics Your Queen, your mother, your one dame It is not fair! It is a fix Egalitarianism A myth. This works well, this system.

Pramod Subbaraman

Amy Bobeda

Twice Told Tales: The Handless Maiden

Twice-Told Tales Examines various fairytales through lesser-known characters or the bits of the tale left to the imagination--what happens to the maiden's hands after her father chops them off in The Handless Maiden?

Perhaps, they are buried beneath the apple tree and sprout marigolds. Through color, text, and poetry hidden aspects of popular fairytales shed new light on old perspectives.

Amy Bobeda

Writer’s Block Sand martins flit in and out of holes in our crumbling riverbank, chasing flying insects. Birds bob lighter than my thoughts. Poems will not come, my dead-end lexicon spins then tanks back into my cauldron-mind, leaving me dizzy, distraught.

Chasing flying insects, birds bob lighter than my thoughts.

Fascinated, tongue-tied, my concentration stalls, words bomb back into my cauldron-mind, leaving me dizzy and distraught – I need wings to fly nest-wards: tweeting, fed and calm.

Fascinated, tongue-tied, my concentration stalls, words bomb, poems will not come, my dead-end lexicon spins then tanks. I need wings to fly nest-wards: tweeting, fed and calm. Sand martins flit in and out of holes, in our crumbling riverbank.

Ceinwen E Cariad Haydon

Errol's Vintage Edibles Garlic is, in my opinion, the best seasoning to ever exist. The spicy warmth of garlic is never too much for me, from garlic bread to Korean pickled garlic banchan I’ll eat it. I know there’s a legion of garlic lovers out there, I’ve seen the garlic bread memes! What I haven’t seen is an equal amount of love for Wild Garlic and that is a modern day Shakespearean tragedy, if I’m going to be dramatic about it.

My love for Wild Garlic however may just come in second place to the Brown Bears’ love for the fragrant herb. It has been thought that Brown Bears regain their strength after hibernation by gorging on the stuff.

Other great uses for Wild Garlic (other than a bear snack) are; using as a deterrent for venomous creatures in rituals, deterring the fae from your cottage by growing Wild Garlic in the thatch roof and even as a way to prevent the flu; Wild Garlic was carried in Ireland during the 1918 flu pandemic as a believed means of prevention.

Tastier ways to use Wild Garlic include salads, dips and soups to name a few. It is a very good substitute for Spring Onion and also Basil in some recipes, like pesto.

Wild Garlic Pesto. These measurements are all to taste but here is generally what I follow.

One bunch of wild garlic leaves Handful of toasted nuts (traditionally pine nuts) 1-2 cloves of garlic 150ml approx of oil + extra to cover pesto in when its jarred Grated parmesan cheese to taste (or veggie/vegan alternative) Blitz up all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and store in the fridge. Will keep for 1-2 weeks if you cover it with oil.

Errol's Vintage Drinkables Now it’s summer, so maybe you don’t want to do much cooking. Just a quick light meal then out to the garden to sunbathe. But what is sunbathing without a cheeky cocktail?

This Lemon Iced Tea is sure to keep you refreshed among other things. The lemon has been a popular fruit throughout history, originating in Asia and slowly spreading out through the world via merchants and colonists like Christopher Columbus.

Columbus even brought lemons and their seeds back to Spain, however on the way most of his crew developed scurvy completely surrounded by the very fruit that could’ve prevented it.

In Egypt, citrus leaves were used in a drink called Kashkab. This was thought to be an early incarnation of lemonade, it contained fermented barley, mint, rue and black pepper. It wasn’t until the 17th century in Paris that lemonade became what we know it as today.

Lemon Iced Tea Cocktail This makes a lot of this cocktail mix!

1.5litres of Gin with 10-12 Earl Grey teabag (steeped in it overnight).

Dissolve 500g of sugar in it (if you want it sweeter add more sugar).

1.5litres of Limoncello or other lemon flavoured sweet alcohol.

Lemon juice; store bought is great.

Cloudy Lemonade as the mixer.

Lots of ice.

For the cocktail: Double/50ml of Tea infused Gin and Limoncello Single/25ml of Lemon juice Pour over ice and top up with Cloudy Lemonade.

So Strange as a Mother Nothing so strange as a mother.

Like a father, they have to keep all those secrets Until you’re good and ready But unlike a father, they’re not lofty or holy They’ll fall down in front of you And so though the secrets are secret You know she is struggling under something heavy What vulnerability is more powerful than this?

To openly struggle in a perfect world It’s no surprise that some children think their mothers are weak Until, one day, they’re not Then they’re strong beyond body and carried on the winds Nurture as nature, wailing with the smell of sweet perfumes Our mothers teach us how to suffer And our great shame is that we’ll never do it as gracefully as them Our pride is that we’ll refuse Silence does not become us the same And though we do our best to practice grace There’s nothing so open as a mother’s arms And nothing so strange as a mother.

Elijah East

Small Press Spotlight Tales to Survive the Stars Greenteeth Press Inspired by retrofuturism, the collection of prose, poetry, and - for the first time - one-page graphic novels centres on an era of chrome ray guns and murderous artificial intelligence.

Science fiction that is ripped from the pages of a post-war comic book, imagining far off planets and a doomed future where astronauts hurtle through galaxies unknown, never to return.

The Moon and the Echo Pilot Press The Moon and The Echo: responses to The Moon and The Melodies (1986) by Harold Budd and Cocteau Twins

The Moon and The Echo is the first in a new series of anthologies from Londonbased publisher Pilot Press seeking contemporary responses to works of art made during the AIDS crisis.

Manatomy Burning Eye Books Manatomy is a collection of wry, witty and cheeky poems exploring how nature, nurture, pop culture, prejudice and politics shape the identity of camp gay man James McDermott.

Structured in three parts – ‘Boy’, ‘Youth’ and ‘Man’ – Manatomy interrogates how the experiences of growing up gay in a homophobic world and in rural millennial England affect a gay man’s relationships with himself, his partners, the LGBTQ+ community and the wider world.

OPEN SUBMISSIONS Our third (as of yet unnamed) anthology will explore themes of travel and holidays.

This may include family trips to the seaside, school residentials, explorations abroad, or piss-ups on party islands. Submissions close 7th August

Digital Magritte series Paul Whelan

This time, Summer This time, summer weeks unroll over your skin. Mami, I blow cool February rains down your way.

Maybe this time, they will not lose themselves over the whirlpools of the Atlantic between us. Maybe the drops will reach you in the half-year, half-reach of the sun. The scent of our last midsummer night still floats on me like preserved snowflakes, glycerin-soaked manifestations of winter in July. This time, your fingers wave farewells.

Flimsy, silken digits up in the sky like gossamers sprouting from fields of cidertinged stubbles in the late fall. This time, Mami, knit me a thousand scarves of filmy love. Weave your diaphanous kisses with hues from your core.

I’ll lasso the stars for you, entire constellations, just to keep you warm.

Fran Fernández Arce

Which page has lots of questions but no answers?

What kind of band never plays music?

What is cut on a table, but is never eaten?

What starts with a T, ends with a T, and has T in it?

What has words, but never speaks?

Arun Paul Kapur

Limbo

Limbo the edges of the surface Where you loose your place.

The self satisfying soul That won't feel whole Unless you reach that goal

Beyond the ever widening gap Finding hope in a nap However near sanctuary seems The abyss beams

My Loving Bath

You can't help but dream.

By Teri Anderson

Every single emotion is permitted In my warm comforting soapy bath Hatred for your actions Paranoia over mine Sadness over losing our friendship Because I cannot truly speak my mind Depression slips through the air tight Cellophane walls I’ve created in my soul Gut and heart Because I do not belong here On this plane In this friendship circle I am a lost soul orbiting the periphery of space In this city There I shall forever stay never quite feeling at home In this life

Always on the circumference of greatness Forever slipping inelegantly into sorrow.

EVENTS! For Yorkshire Day we will be producing a special edition of Forge Zine! How exciting!! Submissions will open on the 8th July and close on the 25th July at midnight BST. We are also hosting a Night of Arts at The Crescent on the 1st August (if you haven't already heard!). Get your tickets from The Crescent website now!

Wildlife Day 27th June Adult £6, Children £1 Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens York Art River Market: FREE event Dame Judi Dench walk 26/06, 03/06, 24/07, 25/07, 31/07, 01/08 Houseplant Lovers: Social & Plant Swap 27th June, 14.00, £4 a ticket, The Crescent A Splinter of Ice (play) 6-10th July, York Royal Theatre, £27.00.

Moscow 1987, as the cold war begins to thaw and Britain's greatest living novelist Graham Greene meets with his old MI6 boss, Kim Philby, Britain's greatest spy… and traitor

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