Poetry
STAR POems: Where I Belong
I am the sea I would live and die here (with grace, as our ancestors did) If I could outswim this spike embedded in my side I never dived to the depths wanting [… read more ]
poetry
Poetry
Portsmouth Writers’ Season: Vin Adams
Local poet, actor and spoken word performer Vin Adams will be appearing at A Word In Your Ear, a Labour Party fundraising event at 7.15pm on Thursday 27th September at the Hunter Gatherer café, Albert [… read more ]
Poetry
Portsmouth Writers’ Season: Richard Williams
S&C regular and admired local poet Richard Williams will be launching his new collection, Landings, at the Square Tower, Old Portsmouth on Thursday 20th September at 7.30pm. S&C poetry editor and Ted Hughes Prize winner [… read more ]
Poetry
STAR POems: China Town, London
Made in China, nurtured in London. I parade a toy town in China Town, picking up oranges with exotic names. Fruit sellers with ‘painfully British’ on their passports. I am British, quarter Chinese. [… read more ]
Culture
Pompey Writes: Star & Crescent Anthology and Book Launch
S&C co-founder and features editor Tom Sykes reports on our upcoming book, Pompey Writes, an anthology of the best writing and visual art to have appeared on the website plus brand new material from some [… read more ]
Culture
Our Own Personal Bell Jars: Sylvia Plath and Depression
Following the recent publication of The Letters of Sylvia Plath, Volume 1, 1940-1956, Katie Roberts revisits the poet’s only novel, a tormented roman-à-clef that is both gorgeous and dangerous. The Bell Jar combines bewitching poetry with a candid [… read more ]
Poetry
STAR POems: Horizon
At a head-stroke you sail along sound waves throat travelling to some rainbow’s end in your voice-box-boat. We calibrate vibrations in Hertz. At 25 – 50, the frequency of purrs: the same tremor of [… read more ]
Social Issues
Turn It Off: A Poem About Suicide
Following an unflinching account of her recent suicide attempt published on S&C earlier this week, Emily Priest returns with a video of her slam poetry performance of Turn It Off, a poem exploring the reality [… read more ]
Poetry
STAR POems: Southsea, 1985
At 2 a.m. I saw her – She hung her body like meat in the entrance to the pier – that pleasure palace. She’s haloed by a streetlamp opposite Peggy Sue’s. She takes my [… read more ]
Poetry
STAR POems: Invocation
– a little wax from melted candle – a gentle press – feather on frame we near completion. at the edge, we pray for guidance and hope the artifice holds. will a playful stroke’s [… read more ]