edition #004
open category
Gente del desierto by Charles Haddox
Terracotta tiles by Daniel Cartwright-Chaouki
IN THE HOUSE OF MY MOTHER by H.T. Reynolds
Parallel Bloodlines by Karen Luke
spotlight: sonnots
Cassandra and Parking Lot by Carla Sarett
New Balls by Daniel Whitelock
My Welsh grandmother conjures her future from The Imperial-Royal Dream Book by Jackie Wills
Clay Pit Engineer and B Movie by Lowena Olver
baby dyke and Computer Chess (2013) by Marina Crustacean
a skip in the record, by Mike Wilson
Caveat and A Great Pity by Paul Hostovsky
essay
Nets and Nots by Joseph Hamilton
Letter from the Editor
written by
Allie Hatton
managing editor
Dear reader, with the publication of this edition, we complete the first year since boundby’s relaunch (or ‘New Boundby’ as we have taken to calling it internally) — and what a year it’s been. A year ago, we were a small publication run primarily out of Coventry, UK, with most of our submissions coming locally. Flash forward a year…
Caveat
and one other poem by Paul Hostovsky
I should tell you that I sometimes get my latitudes
and longitudes mixed up. And also my apogees
and perigees. My stalactites and stalagmites sometimes
run together, not unlike my wants and my needs—
the wants drooling down, the needs piling up until
…
baby dyke
and one other poem by Marina Crustacean
I woke up through the leaves—
gasped out of a dream into human being—
I came to, the air was sobbing—
fighting not to make a scene—
…
New balls
by Daniel Whitelock
As a child I functioned
as the raised half of a
table tennis table,
serving to my father
and returning each new volley
…
Parallel Bloodlines
by Karen Luke
Your mum with nails
the colour of crystals.
My dad, hunkering down
with his second family up north.
…
Cassandra
and one other poem by Carla Sarett
Don’t blame me for the rains
that flood your basement.
I was at an exclusive Zen retreat in
semi-comatose meditation
then chasing an online affair
…
Nets and Nots
Nat Raha’s niners, Sidney and Hayes; Sonnots, Containers and Love
written by
Joseph Hamilton
editor in chief
Young poets are often introduced to established poetic form via some variation of the metaphor of the container. A metaphor that expands to account for the concept of generative constraint, which states that by clarifying your poem’s rules, you might somehow unlock its potential. Whether by activating only certain muscles or by straining to flaunt the imposed rules…
Gente del desierto
by Charles Haddox
Te pido que hables de lo familiar
como las hierbas aromáticas del desierto
con semillas que parecen flores
y flores que parecen semillas.
…
a skip in the record,
by Mike Wilson
the fifteenth line of a sonnet, it’s the
sound of one hand clapping or both hands pressed
over one’s ears while eyes shut tight, it’s the
left hand eagerly reaching forward while
…
Terracotta Tiles
by Daniel Cartwright-Chaouki
The red roof sags
all of the terracotta tiles have slipped
and the cast iron gutter
collapsed under its own weight
…
IN THE HOUSE OF MY MOTHER
by H.T. Reynolds
Before I knew how to create a meal
from a hot stove, I knew how to treat
blistered skin, how to hold a wilting mother
…
Clay Pit Engineer
and one other poem by Lowena Olver
I am speaking to my grandfather on the phone and he tells me
each of us is ingesting tiny particles of china clay each time we brush our teeth,
swallow paracetamol or scrape our spoons along the belly of breakfast.
…
My Welsh grandmother conjures her future from The Imperial-Royal Dream Book
by Jackie Wills
I never knew Gladys Powell, just her broken book of fate,
its pencil marks, missing spine, loose and torn page 129.
It stole Gertrude's mourning wail among the flowers,
One woe shall tread upon another's heels, so fast they follow...
lifted Shakespeare's lines as prophecy. Gladys asked,