Home Alone Christmas Copyright © Rod O'Donoghue 2011

Home alone Christmas
No knocks at the door
No cards by the fireplace

Three Steps South (On Swyre Head) Copyright © Richard J Whiting 2011

Three steps south of here
Everything stops;
A peregrine nests

King of the Coalies Copyright © Rod OʼDonoghue 2011

Why
Do I
Fear Darkness,

I Remember Copyright © Jen Overett 2011

my motherʼs white ankle socks
and blue tennis skirt (she would
never wear shorts) as she left

The Dealer Copyright © Jen Overett 2011

The cup we watched him throw
(that he could not recall)
was the final straw,

Who is Kidding Who? Copyright © Reg Wright

Wen Jiabao comes to town
One point four billion
Weighing him down

The Nationʼs Favourite Poems Copyright © R J Whiting 2011

Reprinted in ‛97, (eleven times)
Eleven times! And you threw me on the grass;
Nice tarpaulin though, green, mud-veneered

Finding Focus Copyright © R J Whiting

Tomorrow, theyʼd promised
To head for the coast…

Coins dropped in metallic rhyme.

Description of a room Copyright © Sally Gardner 2011

Lithe liquid shadows dance on antique white,
gold flecked geckos kiss above the door.
Victorian chairs aware of feminine curves,

Jack Copyright © Richard Whiting 2011

This is the waiting-room
To which your life has shrunk.
An apprentice-coffin of a space