stories and poems.

Reading Palms by Stephen Watt

Reading Palms As child, I conceptualised trolls beneath where the tolls were stationed, swiping seaweed-sticky fingers at cars commuting from Erskine, dragging all inside to the bottom of the Clyde then gorging on their bones. Such a little monster’s vision. Growing, the creatures faded leaving the bridge to sketch an impression on my young mind. […]

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Poetry: Lahore, I am coming by Rizwan Akhtar

Rizwan Akhtar works as an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan. He completed his PhD in postcolonial literature from the University of Essex. His poetry has been published in the the UK and countries throughout the world including:   Canada, India, New Zealand and U.S.A. Poems from Rizwan Akhtar’s first collection ‘Lahore, […]

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Autumn Makes Me Sad by Muriel Baker

Autumn Makes Me Sad   Seasonally Associated Disorder Referred to as SAD by those who think they know, that a little lack of sunshine makes us feel like forty degrees below. It’s a chemical imbalance. Think of hibernating mammals. We have the same inclination. So until the clocks change to longer days. It will be my […]

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Three Haibun by Robin Lloyd-Jones

Autumn Trail I walk a narrow track under miles of beech and oak. Strands of gold and red flare like forest fires amongst the greens. Bark steams when touched by the long-fingered sun. But the sky is darkening.      Canyons, cliffs, mossed walls      Submerged in wooded gloom      Fathoms from the […]

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The Indian Shawl a poem by Muriel Baker

Exotic birds of fantasy from the dyers vats of colour tamed by the hand of the weaver. Creatures from the imagination unreal and like no other. The silk worms die in boiling vats. The plants give up their colour to make a scarf, a shawl, a wrap for someone else’s mother. I hope the skill […]

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Plum Stone Throat a poem by Jenne Gray

(For Helen X, c 1910-1967, who died of throat cancer) In Chinese medicine plum stone throat describes the feeling of a plum stone stuck at the top of the back of the throat. It is associated with stagnation of liver energy (liver chi). The liver is said to control the flow of emotions. Plum stone […]

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Autumn Visit to USA by Leela Soma

Fall in Washington DC As my friends in Glasgow are getting into their Autumn woolies, here in the Fall in DC it is still 90 degrees during the day and humid. Shorts and flimsy tops are de riguer. My summer has been extended by a few more weeks and I am relishing it, in air […]

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Lochwinnoch – a poem by Lindsey Stewart

Lochwinnoch Yachts sit silently on still water Soft white sails await life giving breeze Crew sit idly, breathing slowly Waves lap gently at the hull Seagulls circle overhead, beaks wide Screeching mockingly into stillness. Small child crouches by the water Finger points towards the reeds Jackdaw lands, tilts head in recognition Its yellow eye staring […]

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Living in Shoes – poem by Gail Winters

Living in Shoes New shoes, true shoes, even Clarks’ school shoes, wedges, sometimes no shoes, clean shoes, smelly shoes, fading away at the seams shoes, travelling shoes, fashionable shoes, kicking in the goal shoes, losing the sole shoes whilst singing the blues shoes, making your dreams come true shoes, safe shoes, dangerous shoes, mind the […]

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The Big Chair – Autumn Voices – Robin Lloyd-Jones

Robin Lloyd-Jones And what a big chair it was! Robin Lloyd-Jones looked like a pixie – size wise that is! Loved the concept of the Big Chair. Looking at six photographs selected from your life would really tax anyone methinks. Probably reveal a side of you never before realised. Robin started with a photo of […]

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Corn Dollies by Mary Irvine

Corn Dollies ‘Corn dollies, made from the last sheaf of corn, go back thousands of years.‘ Dressed in Edwardian attire, complete with straw boater I was attending a Mayday celebration. I watched a man working straw into intricate designs. He smiled, ‘I know just what your hat needs.’ Taking a long piece of straw, heads intact, […]

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Chinese Autumn by Mary Irvine

‘Ancient Chinese philosophy says humans should live in harmony with the natural cycles of their environment.’ A preparation for winter, a time to reflect and organize your life, a time to pay attention to the lungs and large intestine, for they deal with the process of purification and elimination. The lungs take in oxygen. We […]

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The Last Leaf – a poem for Autumn by Catriona Malan

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Leela Soma: ‘Vermillion’ a poem for Autumn

‘Autumn’ in the broadest sense. It is how Indian widows had to undergo a ritual  in olden days to give up all their ornaments, even the red dot on their forehead wear only white. Life stopped if their husbands passed away. Vermillion Leaves fall down, blown away in the autumnal blitz Gold strewn paths crunch and crackle underfoot A […]

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Love Stories by Glasgow Writers. Sticky Love by Pauline Lynch

Sticky Love by Pauline Lynch No denying it, times were rough. Sadie was only seven, with limited life experience, but even she knew times were rough. Last night, someone had knocked on their door asking to borrow dog food. It was late and she was meant to be asleep, but she’d heard the knock, and […]

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Mary Irvine’s Blog: A Sad Day – Murder of Martin Luther King Jr

A Sad Day Fifty years ago, on April 4th 1968, Martin Luther King Jr was murdered  on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, Memphis, Tennessee. For MLK I am afraid of them They’re black I am afraid of them They’re foreign I am afraid of them They’re disfigured I am afraid of them They’re crippled […]

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Love Sticky Lick by Jim Byrne, a love poem

Love sticky lick You, me, sticky toffee pudding Runny honey, salt and pepper Chocolate creams and tea Tart, tacky, treacled fingers Shandy, candy, juice and jelly Sticky licks, ice cream and lemonade…. Fuck. With you and me, everything rhymes. Jim Byrne, February, 2016.

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Christmas Day – a story by Cornelius Doherty

  Christmas Day Everything old was new again. The rust on the tin roofs of the outhouses disappeared. The black pitch on the byre – gaping and torn down to the rotten cladding was covered in the cold white of Christmas morning. A small robin landed lightly on the window sill, barely marking the untouched […]

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‘Love’ a story by Maggie Reeve

  LOVE She appeared at more or less the same time every morning. It was so regular I wondered if she set her alarm as a reminder to feed the birds. And she always wore one of her colourful hats. I used to watch her through the window as I drank my morning coffee. The […]

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Past Love in the Museum of Transport – poetry by Ciara MacLaverty

Past Love in the Museum of Transport Where’s Daddy? I say, holding your son in my arms, inhaling the baby scent of his head. You’re up on the steam engine with your other son pointing, waving down at us. You still look good and I can hold your gaze without fear of loss or fear […]

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Summering by Nina Quigley

A Summer Poem by Nina Quigley SUMMERING 26/7/14 Rain creeps quietlyinto my consciousnessfrom the open windowas I waken to a soft dayafter several torrid days of heat. For once in Irelandthe hot sand burned our feet,and we had to hop sharpishdown to the water,to spend languid periodsof uncharted timeswanning about in the salton body boards,being […]

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Summer Reality – two poems by Brian Whittingham

Hi Ho Hi Ho Trident’s Got To Go and The Boys of The Somme HI HO HI HO, TRIDENT’S GOT TO GO by Brian Whittingham On YouTube a 60’s newsreel. A black and white Dunoon. A smartly dressed Ban the Bomber waves a To Hell with Polaris  placard reminding us that H stands for Hiroshima […]

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Would You have saved me? A poem In memory of Aylan Kurdi and family by Karrieanne McCafferty

In memory of Aylan and family  by Karrieanne McCafferty Karrieanne McCafferty was inspired to write this poem after seeing the horrific images of Aylan, the little boy, whose body was carried from the beach when his family was attempting to flee war torn Syria. ‘It struck me that it took such tragic images, highlighting the […]

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The American Dream? – poem by Leela Soma

Tribes that stayed true to nature, Cherokee, ApacheSioux overpowered decimated and sent to reservationsThe red of their veins in the soil of the nation The blue of the settler’s eyes reflected in the skyThe white of foaming rivers trailing in the shipsOf enslaved men, women and children from Africa They built this nation forged in red, white […]

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Excerpts from Chris Dolan’s Potter’s Field and Aliyyah

ALIYYAH – an excerpt Once Haldane woke everything was white. White ceiling, white walls, a white door open just enough to reveal a white corridor beyond. He moved his head and felt a murmur of pain somewhere. On the far wall the white was finally broken by an open window looking out on to a […]

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THE ADVENTURES OF ANIE AND BOOGIE: TWO UNCONVENTIONAL FRIENDS AT THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET

A story by Pamela Blanchetti You need to come because you are growing up and to grow up you have to see the world-     The sun was shining and the international market had just opened. It was pretty early, it was so nice. Anie felt very awake in the morning – she was not a […]

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Melting Pot – a poem by Leela Soma

Baltimore, Ferguson and other police brutality makes the headlines, but in Buffalo, NY they see it differently. Melting Pot The colours of the mosaic glimmer in the sun Blue pieces against the bright reds and oranges, A tiled beauty that catches the eye, to look again The platter enhances the tasty food on offer A […]

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Two Cities – a poem by Leela Soma

Buffalo NY and Glasgow, so much in common.  Tartan & Turmeric Two cities The two could be twinned, history so familiar Niagara River, and Erie Canal made this city As grain silos rose up in the sky, men worked hard To get the grain ashore, milled and built steel. The city of light, the Niagara […]

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Ayah a poem by Leela Soma

Ayah My child eye watches,Ayah’s Rangoli patterns bright, on the newly washed verandaThe dots threaded together like pearls of life’s experienceCultural traditions handed down in perfect symmetryThe opalescent sky shimmers anewA visual joy starts the day. My child ear hears,Her quiet, broken piece by pieceThe coffee machine, grinds beans, the aroma rich.Golden sun beats down noon […]

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A Poem for Spring: Chaos by Helen Frudd

Chaos What if I prefer the idea of being here without a god   that the right conditions met in the dark and went bang   and no deity but pure chance created me and everything else.   Call it science, luck or magic the point is with no design or plan   all this […]

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