• Anita Parmar widens the writing community in Bolton's Rhode Island Cafe!

  22 May 2012

  What can you tell our readers about your new blog? Everybody has a story to tell, thoughts and feelings to share, and some are talented enough to present it as poetry and prose. The whole idea of t

  

• Self Portrait by Stephanie Teal

  18 May 2012

  Self Portrait She plans to go far. But never knowing, never showing the arduous journey she must take. Trapped in an unsealed bubble where belief maintains the idealism that: poetry is the colour of

  

• You hurt me to my Corr- A found poem by Lucy Walton

  17 May 2012

  Whenever I borrow heaven, I see you angel, Please don’t hide away from me, I suffer through long nights, Whenever you say goodbye. There is always time enough for tears, While I am enslaved in t

  

• Preservation by Paula Ward

  17 May 2012

  Preservation She held her head back, the mirror aloft and imagined what she’d look like without the bandages. She couldn’t wait to see the result. Two black holes peering through. She smiled. She did

  

• Emma Russon writes for children with 'Cuddles'

  26 Apr 2012

  CUDDLES “But it wasn’t where I left it! It really wasn’t!” In a demonstration of violent manhandling that made the class wonder if Mr Greggs should ever have been hired in the first place, Ma

  

• A Schizophrenic Nightmare by Katya Mikova

  25 Apr 2012

  This is a place I don’t feel alone. This is a place I feel alone. …….. Yes. No. Run. Don’t. Go! Silence… Tick-Tock. Faster. Slower. Time runs (not). No time lost. No time found. No time left at all.

  

• A World in Poetry by Katya Mikova

  24 Apr 2012

  I saw a whole new world in poetry. Moving (not). Stretching. Motionlessly sitting. Baffling. Getting thicker… and thicker. Getting slower. Telling us we can’t afford possible tomorrows. Absorb your l

  

• Golden Boy by Ray Berry

  23 Apr 2012

  Push! Push Harder Barbra!’ ‘This is as much pushing as you are ever going to get woman!’ ‘Come on now Barbra.’ ‘Don’t you “come on” me, you giant raging lesbian!’ ‘I am not a lesbian Barbra.’ ‘Yo

  

• Wife.Husband.Pig by Lauren Addicott

  22 Apr 2012

  The wife lies in silence. Eyes bright, another night of no sleep. She watched his chest rise and fall, imagines his stomach heaving through the burden of his fat – his diaphragm weighed down. She r

  

• Why They Run by Lauren Addicott

  21 Apr 2012

  Nobody truly knows why they run. You’d have to study their lose-limbed ways religiously, and for many days before you recognised the rhythm in the squealing, sticky-fingered hive that is the play

  

• Getting Old by Durian Willink

  20 Apr 2012

  Attracted as ever, by the sea, we lumber forward, bent downward, Slowly succumbing to the pull of gravity. It is, after all, inexorable. Seagulls gawk as we trudge by, strangers turn astray. Throu

  

• Girls Night Out by Morgaine Davidson

  03 Apr 2012

  It’s Saturday night and the sun has just set, We all want to go to the bar. But wait just a second, we cannot leave yet; If we do, we won’t get very far. The eternal debate starts sweeping our

  

• Bamboo Curtain by Craig Pay

  27 Mar 2012

  Xièxie,’ I say, concentrating on turning each letter ‘X’ into a sibilant ‘sh’ whilst attempting to trail away the tone on the first syllable. Thank you. The border control officer remains stony-faced

  

• Open Up Your Eyes by Anushree Nande

  27 Mar 2012

  The high-pitched tinkle of the bell. Kat has heard it so many times and yet, she involuntarily looks up. Every single time. A stranger walks in, smiles at her. Her forced smile in return. ‘Welco

  

• Whore by Camilla Duggan

  27 Mar 2012

  Inedible woman. Ingest her lips of little consumption. Take with caution from her bargain bin of bones - a worthy purchase.

  

• Cicadas by Camilla Duggan

  27 Mar 2012

  Cicadas Kaleidoscope daydreams and the hard flesh of sole on hot cement that moves you to run. I long for the citrus smell of lemon love and lime lust, To pick tomatoes bigger than a fist, G

  

• It’s not a crime to be an asshole by Jamie Ryder

  20 Mar 2012

  Andy knows he can have anyone he wants; it isn’t a question of ifs or maybes. He feels it in his bones, as if God carved something so irresistible into his DNA the thought of being unsuccessful with a

  

• Dreamcatcher by Mikey Goddard

  20 Mar 2012

  The Dreamcatcher was given to Donna by Aunty May who babysat her and Paul. She couldn’t remember how old she had been, but she recalled the excitement with which she first hung its frame above her bed

  

• Eight Years Gone and Counting by Tina Shaw

  20 Mar 2012

  Did I believe he was dead, lying in the hard ground with a gravestone over his head? In the rain, under the fallen leaves, in the earth. Can I believe he is there?

  

• Fareham Town by Tina Shaw

  20 Mar 2012

  In the kaleidoscope of the town, my sinews constrict with the seasons. On the mortar and tarmacadam through age old streets and alleyways moving quad bikes and BMWs fly by in the autumn, and gna

  

• The Measure by Debbie Walsh

  20 Mar 2012

  You knew death would measure regret: Length, breadth, width. Even I, these few metres beyond that moment Cannot recall whether The window was closed, The fire was guarded, The back door locked,

  

• Student, Hungover by Morgaine Davidson

  20 Mar 2012

  For breakfast you’re craving some warm cheese on toast Not a full English fry-up or large Sunday roast, But head for the fridge and it starts to go wrong: This food must have been here for decades

  

• Hansel and Gretel by Morgaine Davidson

  20 Mar 2012

  Some fairy tales can be really quite dreadful, Yet parents still read them to kids by the bedfull; Young Goldilocks should by rights be in jail But gets off scott free in the usual tale.

  

• Age Concerns by Morgaine Davidson

  20 Mar 2012

  Have you ever had that feeling? The age you’re at seems unappealing. Restrictions governed by your wrinkles, No fairy cakes, no chocolate sprinkles. Many adults often hunger