THE WINGED MOON
THE THREE NORNS WINDING THE ROPE OF FATE after Arthur Rackham (1910)
Paul atten Ash
Firelight flicker,
the acrid tang of old smoke
on the tongue. Curse-woven
song of dusk, the night steals
darkly upon Erda’s daughters
beneath Brünnhilde’s rock.
The three Norns,
ever winding, their knotted
weave tightening within us,
insidiously slick-black as oil.
In nacreous last light, the air
electric, the old earth yaws
on its keeled axis,
wyrd sisters slow-spinning in
time with life’s warp and weft.
Gilt dust settles upon our skin,
and fate’s curling fingers flense
the world back to its bones.
The last tree bleeds
out, its charred limbs biting
black into the sky. The stars
choked with ash: the spectral
grain of charcoal laid down &
smudged by ancient hands.
Lydia Harris
THE CREEPING WILLOW
sweats from bitter bark
on the old track
not soft to the touch
veins purple with sap
stems also breathe
buds oblique
and barren seeds tucked
underarm, uncombed, matted
through the tangle
catkins blink
roots nuzzle the underworld
one diverging
through the withered leaves
of last year
AS THE LILAC WANES
Claire Gibson
Summer is old.
Like a rake
We pull cold leaves
From her grey-green fingers.
It is a garland of snow,
A quizzical scent of rose
That shows Age its colour.
Rainy skies still offer blushing clouds
To her rosed wildflowers,
Red-cheeked,
As if not told that she had grown old.
And in lilac June
Time appears to have forgotten her wrinkles,
So beautiful, clawing at her existence.
ART KARNIVAL by Didier Hamey
Didier Hamey’s engravings are a small and large format bestiary representing hybrid, mysterious figures in osmosis with nature and landscapes. They symbolize exuberance and the desirable secrets of the earth and fertility, becoming the spokespersons for natural spontaneity and the joy of life. Didier is one of the top artists for engraving in France.
Paul atten Ash is the pen name of Bristol-based Paul Nash. He has been published by Bent Key Publishing, Broken Sleep Books, Butcher’s Dog, Full House Literary, Magma Poetry, Salò Press, and Sídhe Press, among others. Prize shortlistings include Alpine Fellowship (2023) and Ginkgo (2022, 2021). Searchlight Seasons, his debut pamphlet, will be published by Atomic Bohemian this year. campsite.bio/northseanavigator; Twitter/X @NorthSeaNav; Instagram @north_sea_navigator
Lydia Harris's home is Westray, one of Orkney’s north isles. She held a Scottish Book Trust New Writers’ Award for Poetry in 2017 and her first pamphlet Glad Not to be the Corpse was published by Smiths Knoll in 2012. Her pamphlet A Small Space was placed first in the Paper Swans Poetry Competition and her newest chapbook Objects of Private Devotion is published by Pindrop Press.
Claire Gibson writes about the spirit using imagery from the natural world. She has developed her writing recently to include five books available on Amazon and has included her watercolour paintings in her latest collection of poems Salt In The Wound. Instagram @everywordisamemory