Archives for Poetry
Poetry Corner: heatwaves
PETE DONOHUE the memory of rain upon this land dragged from a cooler distance called out several weeks beforehand when times seemed somehow greener squeezes a tear out onto my…
Poetry Corner: Queen Victoria’s Hat
TIM BARLOW One day I’ll climb the Empire State with you To fly a flag and go down on one knee But just for now our love is clandestine This…
Poetry Corner: writing my will on the toilet
PETE DONOHUE i’m writing my will on the toilet drinking strong coffee laden with whiskey waiting for that familiar movement of mind & bowels when i’ll think about what i…
Poetry Corner: Hastings Fishing Bar
PETE DONOHUE gulls standing sentinel on net shop apex queens & kings of black boarded jungle charabancs rattle over pot-holed pathways laden with freshly scooped silver sea fish beach boats…
Poetry Corner
NEVER AGAIN OLI SPLEEN Overwhelmed by a world That will not hear the cries That twists the truth That lies That gaslights and denies Enables genocide In self-defence disguise Labelling…
Poetry Corner: Realpolitik
WILLIAM BULLIN Realpolitik – Sweet as Lemons If Jesus had been crucified on Hastings's seafront outside a chip shop, they might have rubbed salt into his wounds and offered him…
Poetry Corner
Molly The BourneBEN BRUGES From some distance in time, Turner’s print centres the stream, rushing down towards the sea, a foot-bridge over this open sewer links the impoverished fishing community…
Poetry Corner: winter shower
PETE DONOHUE the quietude takes willpower to abandon so distant from the rush of morning soundscape each movement drops the temperature with cruelty & routine pain kicks off this newest…
Red Rhymes for Valentines
NICK PELLING and HELEN MURPHY Henry Normal, Janine Booth and Attila the Stockbroker are setting out on a tour of various Sussex seaside venues, bringing radical and left-inclined lines to…
Poetry Corner: Growing up in the seventies
ALAN PEPPER Buying my clothes Boots and togs -- Huckells Two plus one Underground Get the latest sounds That's doing the rounds -- Record shop Stylus Disc Jockey Meeting girls…
Poetry Corner
town of poets PETE DONOHUE in the cobwebbed glow of our basement kitchen where moths and wasps have given up the ghost i perch on the edge of the autumn…
Poetry Corner
Boredom ALISON YOUNG My friends are always working My boyfriend’s in the shop; My cat is always sleeping - I might as well get a job! Imperial Leather ALISON YOUNG…
Poetry Corner
HASTINGS WIND SHARON LISA RHODES Hastings wind whispers stories old Of asylums closed and stories untold A community woven frayed and strong Where empathy’s thread runs life long They came…
HIP POETRY REVIEW: Where Fairies Once Dwelt
By Jemia De BlondevilleDe Blondeville Press, 2025, £ All proceeds toHastings wellbeing groupsREVIEW BY PETE DONOHUE Jemia De Blondeville has been around on the Hastings poetry scene for a good…
Poetry Corner: ONE MORE TURN
BEN FAIRLIGHT Now that our sun softens its glare To smile among shape-shifting starling clouds As jackdaws call in startled crowds That gift a fifth dimension to the tainted air,…
Poetry Corner: Rooks at Stonegate Station
BEN FAIRLIGHT A jolt, a dull clatter, and doors suck open Raucous caws with cold-fronted air honed High in the thin trees, where nine black frazzles Squabble over six twiggy…
Poetry Corner: LIKE DEJA VU
OLI SPLEEN The present I hold only in contempt For it is now and now and always now Whereas the past embroiders on itself With recollection’s corners worn by time…
Poetry Corner: Saint Eanswythe
JUDE MONTAGUE Old, old bones What have you got to say? Nothing, you can't talk. You're old, old bones. Maybe you'd say, 'You're stupid.' Or 'We're not stupid, why do…
Poetry Corner: The Low Season
VERNON KEITH FOWLER The tourists have gone but the sea is still here. At the Goat Ledge Café you can still find some cheer: A cup of hot choc with…
Poetry Corner: MORNING IN MAGDALENMA
JUDE MONTAGUE I went into the church, not to pray but to see. The Icons hung themselves over wood paneling, didn't look at me. They were already a bit out…
Poetry Corner: And all because you ignored a comma
ALISON YOUNG I started to write you a message but I couldn’t think what to say; I wrote, “Hi,” your name, and pressed send by mistake But you didn’t wait…
Poetry Corner: DISORIENTATION
OLI SPLEEN Disorientation descends A confusion midst euphoria And when this haze-cloud ends My focus forms to flesh Absurdity of skin and sinew Perceiving from a lens, organic Specific to…
Poetry Corner: HOLLOW MOON
OLI SPLEEN I gaze upon a hollow moon And doubt all I held dear A dark cloud is descending And this world is filled with fear We’re set adrift upon…
Poetry Corner: Anghofio
OFELIA FERCH RHOS I forget you, fy nghariad. the slope of your shoulder becomes the hard line of your back: mountains. snow. I could forget your face now. soft tide…
Poetry Corner
Harbour Trip Sequence JOHN R PARSONS humming in underpass echoes off paintings of whales below Castle Hill one legged gulls on mast tops] harbour walk I sit on polystyrene for…
Poetry Corner
The naked cyclist VERNON KEITH FOWLER The wind was whistling by the shore And through the rowers’ rollocks And as the naked cyclist passed It whistled through his bollocks. The…
Poetry Corner
kim has a beach hut PETE DONOHUE in that tideturn brainspace shingle thoughts revolve around the daystar seagull children shriek excitement men in hats & yoga women stroke the surf…
Poetry Corner: THE MIRROR
OLI SPLEEN If you were me And could see what I have seen Then you would know the longing And the heartache And the listless lonely days I had a…
Poetry Corner
Moving Stillness (at Rye Harbour Discovery Centre) BEN FAIRLIGHT Heron and Egret pin the in-flowing shallows, Wait and watch for the right wiggle In water and ripple. Yellow-speared grey, black-spiked…
Poetry Corner: two-channel system
PETE DONOHUE well there i was happily dribbling into my beard when up i woke in a sudden start on a tired sofa the tv volume up too high &…
Using Your Grief to Decorate Newspapers
MERLIN BETTS Becky StrongSalena Godden The title here is a line that sticks with me, especially as election time comes round, and don’t worry – the irony is not lost.…
Poetry Corner: Hastings Woman
BEN FAIRLIGHT Our sea front is all curvy lines and flowing smiles, Rock-striped huts and hats that glint for miles Along sand and shingle and rainbow-dot dresses. And then, across…
Poetry Corner: Water, Water Everywhere and A Load of Old Bull To Make You Thirsty Enough to Think
WILLIAM BULLIN When Adam delved and Eve span Who was then the gentleman? When Eve named the flowers and Adam, the bears, Who got the bonuses and who sold the…
Poetry Corner: Has Tings!
JEMIA DE BLONDEVILLE Hastings has tings, oh yeah Cliff railways, a castle ruin, and plenty of sea air Great music, poetry, and a myriad of arts Lots of twittens, and…
Poetry Corner
Greenie BEN FAIRLIGHT As soon as we left it, the wild began. Our plough-shares cut the umbilical, Severed the song-lines, so the booming bane Of guilt summoned the gulls, their…
Poetry Corner
falling PETE DONOHUE there’s a drone in my ear firing bullets at me if it does drop a bombshell i’ll die like a bee my legs in the air my…
Poetry Corner: J.L.B
ANON (Inspired by article on John Logie Baird in HIP 234) Transmitting motion direct in another space in time. Magic man Barefoot inventor Denying physical needs in pursuit of miracles…
POETRY CORNER: Castleham
DANNY GORING On telly they’re selling us holidays But we haven’t got enough cash The end of the month’s still a fortnight away And the thought brings us out in…
Poetry Corner: Eddie
BRIDGET GRIFFIN Tiles mosaic Stomach archaic Sprightly glistening territorial eyes A tongue that laps up. All the noise Very scaled. Many pigments of brown This artful dodger has a frown…
Poetry Corner: Nature’s Philosophy
VICTOR TIMMONS Nocturnal birds in sibilant causerie Forest creatures in distant revelry While nature's blanket dims their rivalry And stills the air to peaceful reverie How brief is this tranquillity…