Jenny Lloyd, Catherine Balaq, Nathalia Jones

A HEAVEN OF MOURNING
after Rilke’s Sonnets To Orpheus
Catherine Balaq
In a cave that riddled the hills
with many ways; you laid
my bones out to rest: stopped
my soul with stone: took
the path back to the over-world.
You brought me once a golden bough,
laid it at my feet. Then buried it
with me, hoping to grow a tree.
It rains.
Underground
my roots are calloused
with winter’s colourlessness,
depressed beneath a weight of thorns.
I don’t belong to any man.
I have taken my hair down.
the day is grey and there is nothing red.
Not blood, not sun, not poppy fields.
Deadness is filling me with a fullness.
SOLSTICE
Nathalia Jones
And yet a hurricane of colour blazes through;
The rebel rose so defiantly blushed
A gash of crimson slices the chill
Like a hot-blooded lance.
She’s still green behind the years
I don’t mind.
In the snarl of dandelion sequined callouses
Wishes scatter like embers on the wind.
I am lavishing Nutella on buttered toast
Leave you the mixing bowl to lick clean.
Wildfire summer stubbles spring
But it will not eclipse tradition.
Each year, candles fight for real estate on McQueen’s
Chocolate covered face, and for one day
The sun stands still.
Jenny Lloyd is an artist and designer based in beautiful Amsterdam, where I make handcrafted and digital collage illustrations for magazines, album art, book covers, zines, and other custom pieces and commissions. I love to combine vintage and modern ephemera to create mysterious, escapist worlds, where new stories and fresh feelings emerge to be explored, and each piece has a spirit of its own.
Catherine Balaq is a writer and body psychotherapist. Her work has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and nominated for the Pushcart and Forward Prize. Her poetry play 'Fuck the Moon' was commissioned by Paper Nations and short-listed for the Bristol Old Vic Open Sessions 2019. Catherine is working on her first novel, 'Halloweg' and is represented by Donald Winchester at Watson Little. She is co-editor of Black Cat Press. Catherine’s writing centres around themes of class, gender and the politics of the body. Her debut poetry collection 'animaginary' was published with Black Cat Press. Her second poetry collection 'Deathless' is published with Verve.
Nathalia Jones is an aspiring writer of mostly confessional poetry and prose. Her writing explores conflict in relationships and draws from personal experience. She has been featured in the Summer Anthology of Querencia Press and the Autumn Issue of Metachrosis Lit Mag, both published in 2023.