I am trying to eat amala tonight. I think of God and throats often. Being African is a religion. I am sixteen, highly unfervent. I read its holy words like sand in my mouth, embarrassing my grandparents. I was born the colour of brown sugar, a home of honey at the back of my mouth. […]
Foyle
smear women
this is the way your activism has always been: in your hair, on the car window, a stain on the bus seat. white people will show your husband on TV. he will wear your blood on the screen like a new tooth. you know King’s shoes and how they walk. you know the speech is […]
blood
cramps feel like tiny soldiers rupturing your belly in the walls of your womanhood every punch makes your knees curl into the springs of your bed.one night, the men were so wrong to your womb, after masking the floors with blood, you couldn’t walk stooped in the slope of the tile floor. only a Maxi […]
The Kroger Car-Loading Service
The grocery boy loaded her car with twenty free-range chicken breasts. She did not discover this until she was back home, after she had cloroxed every plastic Kroger bag he could’ve held. She hadn’t asked for twenty, she’d asked for two and a pack of paper towels. He hadn’t given her the paper towels and […]
my grandmother
my grandmother wears silk sarees woven with soft threads from India stained with rich indigo dye; tiny peacocks perch in the folds and flecks of gold adorn them like jewels sparkling with every movement. a red bindi sits between her brows – she’s a queen. but in Tesco she’s an obscurity in the spice aisle. […]
Polaris
slit through the belly and you will find hot air, slippery fat, rabbit bones, a beer belch swallowed. ask him what he has done, and he will say / nothing. flush out the acid and you will see what it has ravaged. what remains of the forest is its rot; of its birds, a feather. […]
A Little Bit of Poland in Sudbury Hill
Dear Lord, I thank you for the polski skleps – the strip-lights’ thrum above the counters thick with meat that prune-faced women slap as they walk past; fondle the tomatoes ripe, round, earth-dusty in their plastic crates; eye up the bargains, the joyous promotions – Promocja! Oferta! One-time special discount rates! – and go through […]
The Sound of Shakespeare’s Women
If Juliet was silenced amongst a patriarchal nightmare and Lavinia was two hands down with no tongue to tell their tale and Ophelia was driven to madness with no sense left to speak and Cordelia was shunned by her father, her pointless words falling on deaf ears and Desdemona’s desperate truth was shouted down by […]
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⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎ All the slow summer long……………………£9.99 I have been living……………………………£6.90 in a glass jar of anxiety……………………..£16.90 and dreading…………………………………£7.68 a day in August………………………………£6.57 when a devious envelope……………………£12.90 with a barbed paper tongue………………….£3.76 will slither through the door…………………£2.46 to determine my fate…………………………£6.83 with only a few………………………………£5.80 letters: grades that might……………………..£5.45 be as sharp as blades………………………….£9.90 or as […]
Julia
after Louisa Adjoa Parker Instead of you dying, why don’t you come round to ours. We’ll tell you we’re ready by calling your home and hanging up after three rings. We’ll hand you folded card takeaway menus, pretend to look through them then reel out the usual; garlic beansprouts with mushroom curry, as if you […]
Navajo Roads
A thick perfume of hot leather seats hangs heavy in the air, which drags out scraping melodies through an open window and I – hand on the wheel – use up a little more of man’s hydrocarbon quota. I sweat like a pig; the acrid fluid could fill a lager can to its corroded brim. […]
Found
Contains strong language d’y’see your man there, in the – in the grounds of the city hall, d’y’hear he used to be a slaver? kept slaves ‘n’ that, sold thum as well i think i read. an’d’y’hear there’s a bunch of themins – themins at that owl protest the other week – want ‘im taken […]
The Leshan Giant Buddha
After Marilyn Chin step step step to the giant Buddha made with the blood of three generations and the eyes of the monk Hai Tong made to calm the turbulent waters so that the ships could sail smoothly make your sacrifices to the Buddha because nothing comes without a price step step step to […]
Barcodes
the Race Card
People always excuse racism with the phrase “Stop using the race card” as if The exploitation of blacks The use of an infamous six letter word Is all A game Like I could use my race card to Make happy families of All those who have lost A brother A sister A parent A child […]
Love Poem to Young Offenders Support Workers
Here, where the streetlights have seen more than any expert, there is a currency in the green ghosts of cheap chains hidden under collars, or in knowing somebody’s brother from school, or in the phone numbers of people who know how to scoop up boys spilling out onto pavements, their limbs limp as weeds, without […]
CANBURY GARDENS AS A PROSE POEM DOMINATED BY THE WORD ‘LIKE’
Contains strong language
Brown Girl
Contains strong language After Jamaica Kincaid’s ‘Girl’ “The mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation.” – President William McKinley practice your Nepali three times a day; don’t ever forget your mother tongue; always speak English outside the house or people will think you’re a terrorist; here’s how to fold dough into a […]
My Home is Full of Voices
after the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020 winners This summer, they arrived spilling from boxes. They embraced each other from across continents, throwing and catching each other’s echoes at the door, fizzing with new-born verve. They are trying to tell us something. The hallway filled. They filed through the front door, […]
Indigo Mudbhary
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020.
Maia Siegel
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020.
Preesha Jain
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020.
Brigitta McKeever
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020.
Victoria Fletcher
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020.
Imogen Beaumont
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020.
Anna Gilmore Heezen
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020.
Linnet Drury
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020.
Daniel Wale
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020.
Zara Meadows
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020.
Leandra Li
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020.
Anna Winkelmann
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020.
Rian Paton
Rian is a commended Foyle Young Poet in 2019. They wrote and judged August Challenge #4: The Spoken Word Challenge on Young Poets Network in 2020.
Lauren Lisk
Lauren is a top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020, and is commended in August Challenge #3: Repetition & Imagery on Young Poets Network.
Ife Olatona
Ife is a commended Foyle Young Poet of 2019. He wrote and judged August Challenge #3: Repetition & Imagery on Young Poets Network in 2020.
Divya Mehrish
Divya was a commended Foyle Young Poet in 2018. She is the third-prize winner in the Poetry and Political Language Challenge on Young Poets Network, in partnership with the Orwell Youth Prize. She is commended in the 2020 poetry translation challenge with Modern Poetry in Translation, judged by Clare Pollard; and in August Challenge #2: […]
Emma Miao
Emma is a commended Foyle Young Poet of 2019 and the third-prize winner of the Artlyst Art to Poetry challenge on Young Poets Network. She is commended in August Challenge #2: Fairy Tale Poetry.
Esther Kim
Esther is a commended Foyle Young Poet of 2019 and is commended in the Artlyst Art to Poetry challenge on Young Poets Network.
Anne Kwok
Anne is a commended Foyle Young Poet of 2019 and the second-prize winner of the Artlyst Art to Poetry challenge on Young Poets Network.
Matt Abbott
Matt Abbott is a Wakefield born poet, educator and activist. He is one of two Patrons of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020.
Kajol Marathe
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2015.
Ian Macartney
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2015.
Jack Sagar
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2015.
Lydia Stone
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2015.
Riona Millar
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2015.
Apollo
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2015.
Allie Spensley
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2015.
Gaia Rose Harper
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2015.
Evie Collins
Evie is a commended Foyle Young Poet of the Year 2018. Evie is also commended in August challenge #3 on meta-poetry, written and judged by Foyle Young Poet Danique Bailey in 2019.
Danique Bailey
Danique is a commended Foyle Young Poet of the Year 2018. She wrote and judged August challenge #3 on meta-poetry on Young Poets Network in 2019.
Peter LaBerge
Peter was a commended Foyle Young Poet in 2012, and is commended in the Timothy Corsellis Prize 2019. His conversation with fellow Foyle Young Poet Margot Armbruster is published on Young Poets Network, as part of The Poetry Society’s celebrations of 20 years of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award. Peter is the […]
Amelia Dubin
Amelia Dubin (also known as Amelia Dye) was commended in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2018. She is a climate activist, and has been published on Young Poets Network speaking about climate activism and poetry.
Appointments
Contains strong language. The first doctor insists that my relationship with food is to my self what a seed is to a fruit, that my eating habits are the moon and all my life’s catastrophes are the tide. The second doctor makes a diagnosis I can’t pronounce. My father tells me I will fuck up […]
Maple
They named me after a sweet tree As if to hide my spirit They named me after a gentle tree As if to hide my strength They named me after a small tree As if I would not grow They named me after an old tree As if I was not young They named me […]
Phlegethon
When she’s sat in the dark I light myself like a candle Burn away the shadows Til she’s sitting in the sunshine The only problem with candles Is that in order to glow They must burn themselves away But when she’s sat in the dark I swear, It takes everything in me Not to set […]
The Drowning of Li Po
And Li Po also died drunk. He tried to embrace a moon In the Yellow River. – Ezra Pound, ‘Epitaphs’ the river is drunk; reeling, it tosses the sad poet’s prow to the white moon which bathes gently in the dark water of heaven. the moon, enraged by this sot’s trespass, casts his prow […]
I want to stand naked in the school hall
on the podium, mid assembly, so my presence will be so overbearing no one can look away. I want their eyes to burn into my skin, examine its ripples and folds and the scar that digs it up like a trench in Ypres. I’d watch a few hundred jaws slowly unhinge, drop down into a […]
Zeyde
eyns My grandfather sat at the foot of my bed At six years old, my tongue bumbled over my anglicized versions of the Yiddish that he tried to teach me He was six when he learned his second tongue and I can barely see the first now I fell asleep to it tsvey My grandmother […]
my mother, with eight chemo sessions to go
there’s a green chair that sits in my living room. i’m pretty sure that it stands taller and older than me; for years it’s housed the bodies of my family and friends and it still smells like the wet fur of our first dog. i’ve never felt more ashamed than when sitting on the chair […]
Clocks
our clocks forgot to go back this year or maybe their hands have become stubborn in old age, so we live an hour ahead now, flowers drooping before their petals fall plates dropping when the guests have not yet arrived when I sit on bridges and watch water sleep walk, the people on boats are […]
Lauren Hollingsworth-Smith
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019.
Talulah Quinto
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019.
Thomas Frost
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019.
Dana Collins
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019, Dana is also commended in the Ode to (Small) Joy challenge on Young Poets Network.
Annie Davison
Annie is a top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019, and is commended in the Artlyst Art to Poetry challenge on Young Poets Network.
Trinity Robinson
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019.
what are we before we are mothers
woman wants to loop herself like a spool of thread into the cupped arms of a mug woman wants to use up all her thoughts considering the brown heart of coffee woman wants a man with a beard and a dog to lift a mug to his winded lips and swallow her chapped laughter woman […]
Explaining Memes to Keats
“So you see,” I say slowly, “It’s a little engine of remembering, recalling, reverberating in the mind, like rhyme.” “So, it can never die?” he replies. I avert my eyes. “It will, with time.”
the opioid diaries
snooze hit snooze again wake up pull on some dirty clothes run to the bathroom prep a shot cold shower shrapnel digging into flesh later dry hair wringing out dregs of the banal then abyssopelagic ecstasy when i feel like that i often feel what i feel * inventory: 70 mg valium […]
Love Poem to Myself
after Jack Underwood your hair continues to surprise me in its texture after every single wash / like the shock of a photocopier lid realising the other side when it beams white light / I could listen to you listing your banned foods for days / and tell you bad jokes about music as the […]
Jean Klurfeld
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019.
Libby Russell
Libby is a top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019 and 2020, and is commended in August Challenge #1: Re-mixing History, Fiction and the Unexpected on Young Poets Network.
Amy Saunders
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019.
You’re Not Black
I sit with them at lunch Fried chicken on my plate I eat with a knife and fork “You’re not black, if you don’t use your hands to eat” Yet I know that hands tied up the strange fruit on the trees in the south The fruit for the crows to pluck For the rain […]
Helen Woods
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019, and commended in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2014 and 2016.
Meritocracy
And you, you will be sat there surrounded by crackling, yellowed pages with a wad of fifties stuffed in your mouth. And me, I’ll be sat here all picturesque, swathed in marble carvings and oil paintings older than my childhood home. And I’ll silently seethe, let the blood bubble out of my tear ducts, let […]
A Word of Advice
Stop falling in love with people you could write poems about. Stop tripping over and drowning yourself in metaphors And obsessing over similes Like your silly white shirt is clouding your judgement. Resist those with whom you can be Radcliffian, Fall in love with no one in any way Byronic, Or those who may resemble, […]
Kara Jackson
Commended in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award in 2016 and 2017, Kara Jackson has been both the Youth Poet Laureate of the USA (2019) and the Youth Poet Laureate of Chicago (2018-19). She won the literary award at the 2018 Louder Than a Bomb finals selected by National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize […]
Andrew Pettigrew
Andrew is a commended Foyle Young Poet in 2017. He has interviewed Ian McMillan for Young Poets Network, and is also the writer and judge of Young Poets Network’s August challenge #1 on photographic poetry.
Aliyah Begum
Aliyah was commended in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2017. She is also commended in the nonsense poetry challenge on Young Poets Network, in partnership with Little Angel Theatre, London. Aliyah is the Birmingham Young Poet Laureate 2018-20.
In the Nude
While on holiday on a Greek island we stayed in a small village, and at the bottom of the road was a nudist resort. This was amusing to us but I think for most people it would have been embarrassing. Driving down past it on our way to the sea, some of us shut our […]
God in 80s Movies
This baby is born in pink mood lighting, synths shimmering as her tiny raw hands claw at the vinyl ceiling. This baby is born in a three storey house – powder blue and Victorian. This baby has Coca Cola and Chicago running through her veins. This baby cries prettily, and her screams fade out when […]
Elephantsong
“Do you think red is my colour?” I ask with softest teeth. “What?” She watches the mattress, how it languidly sinks beneath my thighs. “It’s just that that’s the whole Indian wedding motif; always red.” She wipes away dark chunks of kajal, small streaks of black smeared down beneath her […]
When my uncle stood at the top of the office block roof
he swayed from side to side, half-glugged bottle locked in his burning fingers, his silhouette framed by the black hole of night, flecks of scornful planets blinked behind his back. The whole world stretched out in front of him like the sides of a fallen-down box, and his eyes had been opened, and stared open […]
Georgie Woodhead
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2018.
Nature’s diagnosis
i’m afraid to say i’ve swallowed an apple seed and now it’s growing its roots in my belly. i believe that the trunk will run straight up through me until i have a wooden spine and ribs of solid oak. i think the seed will grow, and make branches in my lungs till it pokes […]
The Beauty of Right Now
I grew up in a town decorated with honeysuckle and sunflowers. I was not born there, nor did I move there – I woke up one morning and the town came to me. The ground was paved with cobblestones, and majestic oak trees lined the main road (the road the travellers would walk with their […]
Elizabeth Thatcher
Elizabeth is a top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2018 and is commended in the Young Poets Network meme challenge, written and judged by poet Rishi Dastidar, with a poem she wrote jointly with Em Power.
At the Funeral
Brother and sister take polar bears. Brother parks his between two F-150s but sister’s won’t stay, instead follows her to the front row of fold-out seats and licks her wrists when hungry, so she digs through her pockets for bits of raw seal. After the ceremony, she feeds brother’s bear too. Family members say nothing […]
Maggie Olszewski
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2018.
Talking to my car
I once went over to talk to my dream car, and I complimented it, even when it was sleepy and still I climbed inside, and touched the steering wheel, snuggled down in the cosseting seat, told it about its engine, how big, how many this, how many that, I looked in my pocket and found […]
Sammy Loehnis
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2018.
Of All Colours
Parading down the streets of Russia in silence, it’s 1993 and to be or not to be is whispered from balcony to balcony, corner shop to corner shop and the husky has chewed the newspaper. He’s ripped the headlines to shreds and the woman, in a multi-coloured bobble hat, she sits on a bench. Fingers […]
Angela King
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2018.
House with Missing Teeth
Imagine you are faceless and double-bodied, and your mother doesn’t look at you until the moon tinfoils you both, because you are only loved when in the dark and half-forgotten. This is a law of the universe, everything most beautiful when leaving. Your mother has taught you to love a body less body and more […]
Olivia Hu
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2018.
Snakes and Ladders
There’s a house in America full of children Who like to play games Like Snakes and Ladders in their white Walled rooms. If they lose they act Up. But they’re children, what do you expect? Winning makes you feel powerful. Their parents are powerful People. They are expecting A work call right now, they can’t […]
Suki Datar Jones
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2018.
Mr Sigiriya’s Weird and Wonderful Talents
My dad always told me Never to speak to strangers, So I always ended up Just speaking to my friends. I heard about him first from Tommy. We were walking home from school, Our backpacks heavy, Sweat dripping from our spring brows. “Mr Sigiriya can tie himself in knots you know!” I didn’t believe him. […]
Maiya Dambawinna
A top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2018.
Mrs Richards’ Year
The chairs – They were blue and curved and scratched your legs in the morning chill. But they were snug; A familiar, unchangeable presence, Despite the fact you would swap them like secrets. So really, it was a new chair every week. Then there was that odd sensation when you found your very first one […]