Latest edition of Pennine Platform is now available. Fifty-three pages of great poetry from Stuart Handysides, W.D. Jackson, Gordon Scans, Thomas Orság-Land, Chris Bridge, Colin Speakman, Phil Vernon, Jeremy Pritlove, Joan Sheridan-Smith, Simon Currie, Pauline Kirk, Jim Greenhalf, Michael W. Thomas, David Sapp, Simon Perchik, George Horsman, Lance Lee, Eyelet McKenzie, Philip Foster, Bob Tristram, Nicholas Bielby and Kevin Hanson.
Read Nicholas Bielby’s Editorial.
As a taster, here’s a poem from Pauline Kirk:
Distance
This church
is not in the guidebook.
According to authority,
there is nothing of worth
on Via Nazionale.
Lorries shudder past,
fumes stain clothing shops.
Yet each day, these steps
have tempted us downwards.
With only two hours left,
we succumb, and find
a Roman basilica, sanctified:
San Vitale in Roma,
last repaired five centuries ago.
We enter a cool sanctuary,
scented and soft.
Light settles on gold;
a priest’s voice flickers.
But we are interlopers.
Silently, we retreat.
Six hours later
we are landing on grey tarmac,
on a greyer afternoon.
Pennine Platform 