In our final poem from Usha Akella’s Flora and Fauna series, Pramila Venkateswaran encourages us to look upwards and contemplate the magical, ‘unseen paths’ above the terra firma.
In Shamini Sriskandarajah’s short and beautiful poem, ‘Cypress’, two people sit under the quiet warmth of a leylandii tree reflecting on past moments of togetherness.
In Olivia Rosane’s enchanting and evocative rites-of-passage poem, ‘Maiden’s Tears’, a young woman realises her own inner power and strength when encountering a small wildflower in an open field.
In this witty and moving piece, Marissa McCallam reflects on navigating the world as a brown girl, encountering other people’s racist views and prejudices, connecting with her mixed heritage and embracing the freedom and power of ambiguity.
Sophia Naz’s lush and imagistic poems describe the fallen splendour of a wilting sunflower, the passing of a season and a desolate landscape of leafless redwood trees.
In her two poems, ‘Three Notes to Blue Jays’ and ‘So Much’, Zilka Joseph’s words take flight when describing the dazzling brilliance of a Blue Jay and Hummingbird in the open spaces of Michigan.
In her latest work of creative non-fiction, award-winning author Irenosen Okojie explores the rich legacy of hope and life handed down through her mother and grandmother. In hauntingly beautiful prose, Okojie reflects on how past events can offer light and healing in present times of difficulty.
When nineteenth-century scientist, philosopher and poet, Constance Naden, contemplated the night sky, she saw a universe full of vitality. Here, Clare Stainthorp, reflects on Naden’s sonnets and the starry cosmos that inspired them.
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg’s poems offer a solitary space for readers to meditate on nature’s quiet truths, a locus in which to reorientate the self and speak in a new language of trees, birds, waterfalls and winding valleys.
Our Poetry editor, Usha Akella, recalls her time studying for an MSt. in Creative Writing at Cambridge and considers how the flora and fauna of the city inspired her writing and helped her navigate and connect with a new place.
Amanda is out for the night with her new school mate, Lea. But when her so-called friends – an assortment of symptoms from her Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) – turn up, she finds it hard to determine who and what is real.
