THE WINGED MOON
NIGHTLIGHT OVER LINDISFARNE
Sarah Wallis
A spiced honey-mead moon
is bronzing -
pale pinched penny
to a rich gold coin rising -
a memory hangover – mud –
larking, hungover, the finds call
out old uses, slaked coin,
bits of clay pipe, clamshells, cowries
and sea glass, fragments of blue
and white pottery, the mead making
monks of the broken priory,
raise a toast to history, chant and sing
of how they lived here once,
and then, as now, and all over Holy
Isle, the Big Rock swings the tides.
FROM ICHTHYOSAUR, A TALE OF GRIM’S DITCH
Julian Mann
I
‘We are sinking.’ The low ebony-veil
cloud. Chalk-grazes, lighting through
the heart of bramble; cairns of sheep-
pellets. A sky-washed quarry.
His mind called to him:
Grim, standing mock-rain, above his dug
cart; above his people. Give us today our
free-from bread.
A white horse, rumoured even then.
II
An old name, Ichthyosaur. An affection.
Ringing of one who saw the minds of saints;
could tell them their ought. Advisor to the same.
VI
He loved and lowered himself
to Hazeldene; then led her, simply,
to the feast
afterwards whipping her to flotsams
of ecstasy.
A manuscript-copy, buried near the ditch.
VII
‘It is spent; it will not fount,’ Hazeldene.
But in my dreams I have hoarded adoration
from better than thee.
He sent gifts of his quarry that same day
to Martyn of Pentor, which did themselves
measure into soft, patient cones
as they poured.
VIII
He woke renewed, uneasily holy
by right of discharge.
Then an out-of-control. Porched lay-by.
He had ordered the ditch begun; masks
to be swept.
He followed like a raven its quick intimacies;
the tidy deeps he gaped.
What’s this? ‘Cheese and onion.’
Swung the cross, to Bramble Cape.
ART THE HORSE TAKES ANOTHER TURN AROUND THE SUN by Lisa Ivory
Lisa Ivory lives and works in London, UK. Ivory explores the concept of otherness and its inherent duality of fear and attraction. She creates fantastic worlds of mythical creatures, referencing wild men, chimeras, hybrids, anomalies, spectres and other classical narrative archetypes. Ivory graduated from St Martins School of Art with a B.A. (Hons) in Fine Art (Painting) in 1988.
Sarah Wallis is a writer living on the East Coast of Scotland, UK. A chapbook, Poet Seabird Island, is available from Boats Against the Current. 2023 included poem art at Osmosis, podcasting with Eat the Storms and a winning story at The Welkin. Other recent work is at Propel and The Dirigible Balloon, in both digital and audio versions.
Julian Mann is from rural Bedfordshire. He works as a barista during the day and spends his free time walking, reading or writing. He has a particular interest in early Christian history in England, perhaps informed by his spending time in the local ancient church as a child (his parents being church wardens). He would say that T.S. Eliot is the strongest influence on his writing, perhaps followed by Geoffrey Hill and James Wright. Instagram @jmanpoetry