Born and bred in the industrial valleys of South eastern Wales. I lived early life in the shadows of the Six bells colliery, growing up within a close-knit community helped shape lifetime views on political issues.  I worked for over a decade at the colliery and held office in the trade union lodge at a young age. My early influences include the welsh rugby team and the west indies cricket team. I also delight in reading the wealth of unpublished poets, enjoying greatly poems and pints nights and now poetry nights online. Humour and punchlines get my thumbs up. I’m … Continue reading John Munn

Andrea Potos is the author of several poetry collections, including Marrow of Summer (Kelsay Books), Mothershell (Kelsay Books), and An Ink Like Early Twilight (Salmon Poetry).  Her poetry appears widely in print and online, including in Spirituality & Health Magazine, The Sun, Poetry East, One Art, Braided Way and How to Love the World:  Poems of Gratitude and Hope (Storey Publishing). MY MOTHER LOVED WORDSWORTH Today I am closing my eyes to bring back the yellow long-stemmed roses that spilled over her white coffin, yellow roses in all of our hands as the duo of priests chanted in Greek I … Continue reading Andrea Potos

Polly Richardson (Munnelly) Polly is a Dublin born poet now living and writing on the Dingle Peninsula, Kerry, Ireland. She has been published both nationally and internationally in many anthologies and e-zines under the surname of Munnelly and more recently Richardson. A contributing poet to US-based poetry forum Mad Swirl and Europe’s Live Encounters digi mag with poems featuring in Boston’s Nixes Mate review, Porter Gulch Review Cabrillo college US, Italian based Lotus Eater mag and member of and co-runs Navan creative writers group: The Bulls Arse. She has been heard reading at national and international poetry festivals from 2013 to … Continue reading Polly Richardson

My dad had a Toyota Catharsis and it was a terrible ride, so I write for the simple reason that writing is easy, writing is a bumpless road paved with good inflections… once you don’t concern yourself with quality… or critique… or self-awareness… manage that, and writing is easy, honestly, so simple that even I can do it. Plays are hard though, as in technically, as in remembering who said what and to whom, that sort of thing, and poems, poems are hard, not just the rhyming, but the non-rhyming ones as well, and novels, they are sooooooo long and … Continue reading Robbie Taylor

ISBN: 978-81-945865-8-6, New Delhi: Rubric Publishing, pp. 137. Price: Rs. 275; $ 25. A Review by Aneek Chatterjee                      Gopal Lahiri’s latest collection of poems “Alleys are Filled with Future Alphabets has many tastes, the reader would love to savor. The anthology has seven sections, — each based on separate themes.  These sections lead to seven different ‘alleys’, the reader would feel excited to trudge along, because these alleys are filled with words that carry light, darkness, splendor and astonishment. Carl Sandburg once said, “Poetry is an echo asking a shadow dancer to be a partner”. Lahiri’s poems make us … Continue reading Gopal Lahiri (2021), “Alleys are Filled with Future Alphabets”,

Nicolas Ridley lives in London & Bath (UK) where he writes fiction, non-fiction, flash fiction, scripts and stage plays under different names. A prize-winner and twice a Pushcart Prize nominee, his short stories have been widely published in anthologies, literary magazines and journals in the UK, Ireland, Canada and the USA. WALKING SHADOWS I am a realist. By this I mean I see things as they are, not as they aren’t. The suspension of disbelief seems to me pointless. I am therefore not normally a theatre-goer. But here I was, on a damp December evening, in a dismal seaside town, … Continue reading Nicolas Ridley

Jim lives in a small town twenty miles west of Minneapolis, Minnesota. His stories and poems have appeared in over two-hundred online and print publications. His short story “Aliens” has been nominated by The Zodiac Press for the 2021 Pushcart Prize. His collection of short stories Resilience is scheduled to be published in early 2021 by Bridge House Publishing and Short Stuff a collection of his flash fiction and drabbles will be published by Chapeltown books in 2021. In addition, Something Better, a dystopian adventure, will be published by Paper Djinn Press in early 2021. All of his stories can … Continue reading Jim Bates

John Tustin’s poetry has appeared in many literary journals, online and in print, in the last dozen years. fritzware.com/johntustinpoetry contains links to his published poetry online. EMPTY STATION I wait for you In an empty station: My footsteps echo, Unknown breezes irritate stray paper Into little whirlwinds just above the tracks. No passing trains, no announcements, As I pace from the bench to the information booth And then back to the bench. You will come. It is a cold and grimy station And I pass the time humming to myself And reading the advertisements flaking On the walls. I do not pray. … Continue reading John Tustin

Jane King is a full-time faculty member at the University of Phoenix, where she teaches online.  She is also a retired business lawyer.  After many years, she has returned to writing fiction.  She is also an avid animal lover—with cats being at the top of the list.  This is the second story in her series, The Ten Lives of Hector, The Cat!  The first story was published in Volume 3, Issue 6 of Impspired Magazine.  The Second Life of Hector, The Cat! Hector Time Travels to Mars Have you ever done something dangerous or something that excited you at the … Continue reading Jane L King