Steve Parker

the night’s travel



in and now out the same door
like all knives whirling
our utter politics in collisions
of limestone pavements

across all this she travailed
with sepia sandbags
of County Clare

all sailroads to traverse
and only 8 O-clock
by the whale's chime

this big hand by the night's wild travel
points to 12
the little hand
flickers and stops

iris of heart attack hope
—love of small things
and wild places

be certain now be sure

it's that time
in between
where the hands don't count

it's okay to be scared here
to lie down and breathe
to lie a little
before waking





Steve Parker: I'm a UK poet working near Haworth in Yorkshire. I've been published in various journals and zines etc, including Underground Voices, The Chimaera, The Cleave, Ditch, Dogzplot, Cause and Effect, Admit Two, Chaos International, Machenalia etc etc, with more forthcoming. Published in a couple of anthologies, with two poems forthcoming in the Cleave Anthology this Spring. Also published a couple of short collections, with another coming soon. I was a founder-member of the Orzel Collective experimenting with transtextual poetry. I also run a poetry and critique forum (criticalpoet.org) and have a lively poetry blog (brickstackblockstack.blogspot.com). I'm 45, originally from Liverpool, and have two young sons.






Ray Succre Tendai Mwanaka Michael Lee Johnson Steve Parker Dottie Ann Stucko Felino Soriano