E I G H T

SAMPLER
Editor Colin Fraser

Deputy Editor Peggy Hughes

Founder Editor Mike Stocks

B ELFAST FROM S PACE

In memory of Mairtn Crawford

You might, as the man said, imagine a lobster with its tail exed along the Lagan and a pincer stretched on both shores of the Lough, or again, picture a shower of Neolithic lads and lasses stranded on a sandbar, bickering about whose fault, whose stupid fault, it is that they are so far out on a withered limb they might as well be on the moon or whatever they call that moon-face in the sky. * In this satellite photo of Belfast from space I can see the street you lived on, and my own street. Its the ultimate out of body experience, unless you count acid or amanita, or Romper Rooms Miss Helen reading out the names of all the kids she claimed to see through the spiral galaxy of her magic mirror though her Martin was always a different Martin psychedelia on black and white TV. * Nostalgia. Google Earth. Shamanic journeys. I cant come with you, but I wish you luck. Im a pop artist, not a visionary. 11

The older I get, the more I stay at home. Or as Moscow Joe McKinley would have had it, Im crap to know. Im an oul show-off in summer, but in long dark winter (the night a wreath of stars) a pathetic geek... I walk beach often. Im a young fun. * Armaghs stargazers saw through cloud To the transit of Venus, a beauty spot On the thermonuclear breast Of the sun. By such a tiny blemish Whole worlds, like ours perhaps, are known. Plugged into life support, the deep coma Of suspended animation, who knows How long youd take to get there? As far as youre concerned, no time at all. * I can see your house from here, as Christ said in one of the worst jokes about the crucixion. And driving the M1s lobster-tail to meet my girl, the City Cemetery where youre buried is at my shoulder like a navigator.

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How often did we steer home By the stars, half-cut, on auto-pilot? Once too often, or one time too few? M ARTIN M OONEY

T HE B IRDS OF F ERNAGH In the clear sky above the holy city of Fernagh two swallows are making a summer, an airshow of Cuban eights and Immelmans. On the edge of the at roof of the white cube that is our rented home, starlings take their seats for the nights performance: a pigeon on the telephone cable wooing his love with an exaggerated mime of almost losing balance, but holding on. Jerusalem, the locals call the place. The birds of the air ll the air with movement and song, toiling away at their courtships. Rising for and coming home from work we are blessed by the worlds ignorance, and entertained, and parabled. M ARTIN M OONEY

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A note on Arabic Calligraphy E VERITTE B ARBEE For many centuries Arabic Calligraphy was considered to be the highest form of art in the Islamic World. Several Arabic scripts were meticulously developed over hundreds of years by generations of master calligraphers, each passing on their skills and achievements to their students who then did the same in turn. Through centuries of development these masters identied exact shapes and proportions which were the most aesthetically pleasing to the human eye. While studying in Damascus, I learned calligraphy from a local master, focusing on the Diwani Djali Script. Relatively young compared to most of the more famous scripts, the Diwani Djali script was developed as we know it today in the 16th Century. It became very popular for ofcial use because of its striking beauty. Also, its complexity and exibility made it very difcult to forge. It is less popular as a means of writing the Holy Quran because the complexity and interweaving of its letters make it very difcult to read for recitation. My method of illustration uses only the words from the Diwani scripts, as well as the accompanying Diwani Djali shapes which act to both balance and provide diacritical information. My work aims to create a visual image using only the written word. When I want a piece to convey a more complex or detailed image, it becomes more difcult to maintain the accuracy and legibility of the text. Therefore I am constantly trying to reconcile the dichotomy of conveying a clear detailed picture as well as a perfectly legible text. 34

L IZARD S F IRST L AW OF I NERTIA

Calligraphy by Everitte Barbee Based on Lizards First Law of Inertia by Emily Ballou translated into Arabic by Mazen Maarouf 35

B LACKSTONE E DGE
This then: to photograph a rock, have it look like a rock, but be more than a rock. Edward Weston

Waiting for the light to lift a rutted cobble from the Roman road. For the sun to make gold from this spine of lead, opening the door on a black passage down to halls under heather and teetering rock. For a wind farm to rewind the sky, lm and tapes of cloud ung from its spools on a silver horizon. For the fell runner who chases his legs down the old pack road to leak a long shadow.

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For hackles and swords to rise from Saddleworth, roaring its trafc, culverts, milestones, scars. For the white lies told by light and the eye. For a pinch of wool to fetch a salmon. M ICK W OOD

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T HE DAY WAS STILL AS HONEY IN A BOWL Bowl of nuts, bowl of washers bolts and nuts, bowl of coins and car keys; gone are the light sweaters of my mother, the jackets of my dad, poolhalls on 13th , autoshops on Central: the Plains have changed, barns plowed under, even that funeral home on Hydraulic, dig, spade, dig, bulldozed and as good as forgotten. We can say we witness the past, we do that every day pulling books off shelves. Shade still means a lot, out there where the sun keeps asking its question. It doesnt ask questions, that was a feint. The sun hardly bothers. Sideways is how most people snuggle, most questions get put. Arms ung, seldom ung open in glee, more like Donnys st, which could kill. Widen the road, to avoid hurting others. Lets wear the denim dungarees of our people, let it hail and lightning; or lets go wholly away, lets think of a lake bottom, Lake Michigans, bowl of the glacier, scarred, mean, bowl of sturgeon and pike, bowl of gar. D AVID M C A LEAVEY

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Ways of Seeing Dancing Chickens C HRISSY W ILLIAMS discovers that a classic Muppets sketch from the 70s poses very contemporary questions about how popular culture approaches poetry. Snow falls. A horse-drawn sleigh pulls into a wintery scene. Fozzie Bear clears his throat and begins a dramatic recital of Robert Frosts Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He enunciates with the deliberate devotion of a sixyear-old child, until Gonzo bursts onstage with a catchy tango, a colourful sombrero and a troupe of dancing chickens. He shouts: Ol ! e Arriba! Enchilada! and the Frostian idyll is overrun. After several interruptions Fozzie submits, dons his own sombrero and ends by singing the poem in time to the music. Its a simple and delightful Muppet Show sketch that needs no explication, and yet a few straightforward questions such as Why this poem?, Why this song? or Why chickens? point to an insightful enquiry into how poetry should be presented to modern television audiences. Best of all, Gonzos seemingly random stage invasion turns out to be based on a true story about Robert Frost. 84

Biographical Notes T HOMAS B ACHER was born in Japan before moving to Minnesota. His formative years were spent in the southwest suburbs of Cleveland. He grew up when he moved to Brooklyn, New York in the early 1980s. At present, he is maturing in Akron, Ohio. E VERITTE B ARBEE is an Arabic calligrapher and artist. A DAM B ARRICKLOW works as a freelance writer and as the manny for his two-year old niece. He has had work accepted by Riverwind, The Millennium Papers and Pudding House Publications. S TEPHEN B IRD is an editorial manager, churchgoer and family man who lives and works in Central Scotland. N INA B OYD lives in Hudderseld, where she is an active member of a thriving poetry community. She was the overall winner of the 2009 Poetry Business Book and Pamphlet Competition. Her rst collection is Dear Mr Asquith (Smith/Doorstop Books). D AVID C LARKE lives in Cheltenham. He has had poems published in Popshot, Blart, Words-Myth, Snakeskin and Iota, with further work in upcoming issues of Staple and Under the Radar. M ARTIN C OCKROFTs recent poems appear or are forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, Connotation Press and Prairie Schooner. He teaches at Waynesburg University in Pennsylvania. J ANE C OMMANE is a poet, tutor and co-editor of Nine Arches Press and Under the Radar magazine. She was born in Coventry and lives and works in Warwickshire. Her poems have been recently published in Horizon Review, Litter, Hand + Star and Tears in the Fence. D AVID C ONDELL is 43 and married with 3 children. He is English but now lives and works in Glasgow. L UIGI C OPPOLA teaches English in London, trying to instill as much enjoyment of literature, and especially poetry, in his classes. He studied English and Creative Writing at Warwick University. A NTHONY C OSTELLO recently attended a six month poetry course at the Faber Academy in Edinburgh. Recent poems appear in Poetry Review and Fire. T IM C RAVEN was born and brought up in Stoke-on-Trent. He studied Neuroscience at the University of Manchester and English at the Open University. In 2007 he won North-West Comedian of the Year. He currently lives in London. RYAN C RAWFORD has work in New York Quarterly, Borderlands, Existere and others. He lives on an island in the Sea of Japan. C AROLINE C REW is a perpetual student, now at Oxford. Recently her poems have appeared in PANK, Sixth Finch and >kill author. She blogs at otsampoetry.com.

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A NTON E LLOWAY is originally from Cambridge and was educated in England and Wales. Now living in Scotland, he works as an English language teacher. J ESSE PATRICK F ERGUSON currently resides in Cape Breton, Canada, where he plays the guitar, mandolin, bodhran and ddle with varying success. In fall 2009, Freehand Books published his rst fulllength book, Harmonics. K ATE F OX performs satirical poems on radio, telly and stages. Problems with metaphor, a fascination with the processes of psychotherapy and the comedians fatal wish to be taken seriously, inform her other poetry. Shes based and formed in the North of England and tweets dutifully or condingly : katefox.co.uk C ARL G RIFFIN lives in Swansea, South Wales. His poetry has been published in Magma, Pulsar and Pomegranate; poems in Poetry Wales, Blackbox Manifold and Cake are forthcoming. D ANIEL G USTAFSSON was born in Eskilstuna, Sweden, in 1983. He now lives and works at a boarding school in York, where he is also doing a PhD in Philosophy on the subject of religious art. F RANCESCA H AIGs poetry has appeared in various British and Australian journals, and in Motherlode: Australian Womens Poetry, 19862008. Her rst collection, Bodies of Water, was published in 2006. She is a Hawthornden Fellow and teaches creative writing at the University of Chester. G OLAN H AJI is a Syrian poet and translator, with a postgraduate degree in pathology. He has published a number of books including Called in Darkness (2004) which won the Al-Maghut prize in poetry. His next collection My Cold Faraway Home will be published in Autumn 2011. He has also translated various works into Arabic including the Scottish classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. He lives in Damascus. C HARLIE H ALL has just nished studying English Literature at Chester. She is now living in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. Aside from university magazines, this is her rst published work. R ICHARD W. H ALPERIN lives in Paris. His rst collection Anniversary was published in 2010 and his second Shy White Tiger will appear in 2012 (Salmon Poetry). D ANIEL H EALY was born in South Wales and works as a bookseller in Cambridge. His second collection, Facsimiles, was published in October 2010 by Cinnamon Press. His work has appeared in a variety of magazines including The Rialto, Seam and The Journal. R. N EMO H ILL is the author of a novel, Pilgrims Feather (Quantuck Lane Press, 2002), a narrative poem, The Strange Music of Erich Zann (Hippocampus Press, 2004) and a chapbook, Prolegomena To An Essay On Satire (Modern Metrics, 2006).

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Y EHIA J ABER is a Lebanese poet, playwright and actor. Amongst other literary and political works, he has published six collections of poetry including A Pool of Serum (1988), Take The Book By Force (1994) and Love In A Washing Machine (2010). A SHA K HALADKAR lives in Regina, Canada with her husband, son and two or three cats. She works as an editor. Her writing has appeared in Opium, Grain and the dearly departed Orphan Leaf Review. She just quit smoking, and divides her time equally between sleeping and wanting to scream. M ICHELE L ESKOs writing appears in The Southern California Review, Soundzine, The Yalobusha Review, Tiferet and others. Her poem, Interlude: Claridges London won a Readers Choice Award from Pedestal Magazine. M AZEN M AAROUF is a Palestinian poet and journalist, living as a refugee in Beirut. He has published a number of books including Kaan Hoznona Khobz/It was our sadness as bread (2000) and Camera La Taltaket Al Aasar/The camera does not frame birds (2004). G EORGE M AUDE is a Classics teacher and lives in London. He is previously unpublished. D AVID M C A LEAVEYs fth and most recent book is Huge Haiku (Chax Press, Tucson, 2005). He teaches literature and creative writing at George Washington University in Washington, DC. M ARTIN M OONEY has published four collections of poetryGrub (1993, winner of the 1994 Brendan Behan Memorial Award), Rasputin and his Children (2000) and Blue Lamp Disco (2003). Belfast from Space was included in Mooneys fourth collection, The Resurrection of the Body at Killysuggen, recently published by Lagan Press. R ASHA O MRAN is a Syrian poet. Since 1997 she has published four collections of poetry including Rajaa Lahu Shakal al-Haya and Maatif Ahmar Faragh as well as compiling an anthology of Syrian Poetry. She is director of the annual Al-Sindiyana festival of culture in Syria. M ARIO P ETRUCCI is a metaphysical poet of international standing, an ecologist and PhD physicist. His book-length poem on Chernobyl, Heavy Water (Enitharmon 2004), captured the prestigious Arvon Prize. His other volumes include Flowers of Sulphur (2007), i tulips (2010) and the waltz in my blood (2011). T OM P OW has won numerous literary awards. He has been working recently on a project concerning dying villages in Europe. A book will be published by Polygon in 2012 www.dyingvillages.com. D.A. P RINCE lives in Leicestershire. She rst appeared in Anon Three in 2005. Her full-length collection, Nearly the Happy Hour, was published by HappenStance Press in 2008. S AMUEL P RINCE was brought up in Yorkshire and Norfolk. He now lives and works in London and his poems have appeared in various

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online and print magazines. L AUREN P YOTT was born in Glasgow but has lived in Ghana, Palestine, Cambodia and Syria. She studies Arabic at Edinburgh University and has a particular interest in Syrian literature. J ACOB R AKOVAN is a 2011 fellow in Poetry from the New York Foundation for the Arts. He is an Appalachian writer currently residing in Rochester, New York. He has work in The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Other, Spindle, Cavalier Literary Couture and others. He was recently anthologized by Salmon Poetry. S TEVIE R ONNIE is a freelance writer, artist and tutor with a background in digital technologies. His poetry pamphlet, The Thing To Do When You Are Not In Love, was recently reprinted by Red Squirrel Press: stevieronnie.com W ILLIAM S TEPHENSON teaches English at Chester University. Since 2009 his poems have appeared in Albatross, Envoi, The Interpreters House, Orbis and Sentinel Literary Quarterly. S ARAH S TEWART was born in Aberdeen and worked in London as a journalist and editor before completing an M.Litt in Poetry at St Andrews. Her poetry has been published in the Scotsman and performed at Shetlands Wordplay festival. A DAM S TRICKSONs rst collection, An Indian Rug Surprised by Snow, is published by Wrecking Ball Press. His second, Tear up the lace, came out with Graft Poetry this year. He is Teaching Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Leeds and lead artist for the Olympic cultural project Wingbeats. C HRIS W ILLIAMS lives in Newark, Nottinghamshire. Hes a Support Worker in a homeless hostel and works for the Framework Housing Association. He is just starting to write again after several years of laziness and excessive TV watching. C HRISSY W ILLIAMS is coordinator for the Saison Poetry Librarys magazine digitisation project. She is also Joint Editor of Poetry Digest, the worlds nest edible poetry journal: j.mp/ChrissyWilliams R ODDY W ILLIAMS, originally from North Wales, lives and works in London. His poetry has recently appeared in The Rialto, Fourteen, Magma, South, Obsessed with Pipework and other magazines. He is a keen surrealist photographer and painter. R OSS W ILSON was raised in Kelty, Fife. He is currently working on a feature lm about the miners strike in 1926. His poetry has appeared in various magazines, including Edinburgh Review. His rst chapbook will be published next year by Calder Wood Press. M ICK W OOD lives in Strasbourg, where he works as a theatre practitioner. His poetry has been published widely. Mick has won awards in a number of major competitions, including rst prize at the 2009 Ledbury Poetry Festival.

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