For a publication such as this, it’s important to try to be fair. We inherit inequities not only of race and gender, but also of education, geography, age, looks, so many indeed that an effective logarithm of fairness seems impossible. And every individual who takes to writing poetry is, in any case, a minority of one. It’s important to be receptive to those who are starting out, or have lacked success as yet. And it’s equally important to notice older poets who may have fallen from fashion. A current phenomenon indeed is the late blossoming of poets. In this issue you will find examples of what John Berryman referred to (in tribute to William Carlos Williams) as “mysterious late excellence”.

from Maurice Riordan’s Editorial
 

Poems

David Hart, No faun, Now that the hut, Pages flapping, At the break. Taking note
A.K. Blakemore, our town, introversion.forum, lovers
Rachel Piercey, An Overblown Poem About Love, Post-film, Heraclitus Heart
Leontia Flynn, Catullus 6, Catullus 8, Catullus 27, Catullus 46
Miles Burrows, The Butcher’s Wink, But those unheard, In Bloomsbury Square
Howard Altmann, Notes in the Dark
Nick Laird, Team Me
Pascale Petit, The Hummingbird Whisperer, Musician-wren
Caroline Bird, In These Days of Prohibition, First Signs, The Moment
Patrick Mackie, Early Mandelstam
Thomas McCarthy, In a Fruit Cage, A Bedroom Window in Newfoundland, The Seven Pear Trees of Avigdor Arikha
Patrick Cotter, War Games
Suzannah Evans, The Doomer’s Daughter
Matthew Sweeney, The Red Helicopter, Frogman
A.B. Jackson, from The Brendan Voyage

Poems from Poetry

Rae Armantrout, Asymmetries
Chen Chen, I’m not a religious person but
Claudia Emerson, Drybridge
John Hennessy, Convenience Store Aquinas
Ailish Hopper, Did It Ever Occur to You That Maybe You’re Falling in Love?
Cate Marvin, Dead Girl Gang Bang
Richard O. Moore, d e l e t e 12
Tomás Q. Morín, Salad Days
Donald Revell, Pericles
Atsuro Riley, Moth
Christopher Robley, Nano
Danez Smith, from “summer, somewhere”
Karen Solie, Bitumen
Jamila Woods, Daddy Dozens

Prose

Poets reading: Rebecca Perry on Maggie Nelson and Dai George on John Ormond

Reviews

David Wheatley on Christopher Logue’s War Music
Kate Bingham reviews Andrew Motion and Tracey Herd
Tiffany Atkinson on Linda Gregerson and Marilyn Hacker
Ben Wilkinson reviews Maitreyabandhu and John Glenday
Judy Brown on Anne-Marie Fyfe, Mel Pryor and Kate Miller
Justin Quinn reviews Joseph Massey’s Illocality
A.B. Jackson on Tim Cresswell and Nancy Campbell
Fiona Moore on the ‘best’ British and American poems 2015

The National Poetry Competition 2015 winners

Eric Berlin, Night Errand
David Hawkins, Long Distance Relationship with a Mountain
Carolyn Oxley, Biracial

Letter from the Isles of Scilly: Katrina Naomi