Number 27b

The Importance of Being Father

by James Brookes

'Body-in-womb / A babe in arms, / it couldn’t be; / hardly a thing'

A Teenager in the Home

by Olly Todd

'and they've run the path to our red door / where there's a ghost at the threshold'

What Are Good Manners?

by Emily Berry

'I’ve learnt everything I know from the Doctor. / When he asks if I want to talk about my mother / I say, ‘No, thank you. My mother is dead. It’s classic.'

Can We End Those Quarrels?

by Nathan Hamilton

'on how I set them down and then they quarrel / in a row at meal time'

What We Learn From Fantasy

by Heather Phillipson

'Both are in excess of thought / which is not the brain’s function which is action! / Sure, the mind is not Raskolnikov napping'

In Praise of Children

A Poem Immediately upon Waking by Tom Cockburn

'I had a dream my two girls, grown up, / with their intelligent eyes and nuanced, searching faces, / stalked up to me at Christmas, or something very like Christmas'

A Later Stage of Discipline

by Oli Hazzard

'Tonight, under the threshed light / of this concave city, I will underwrite / your hand-scribed manual of confidence-tricks'

Pedagogic Poems

Fresh new poetry from the UK's finest: Tim Cockburn, Heather Phillipson, Nathan Hamilton, Emily Berry, Olly Todd, Luke Kennard, Oli Hazzard and James Brookes. It's all pedagogical.