Fiction
Planting Nature – A Walk In The Woods
By Bruce Parry It’s when I went off track across a wild bit that I found a full size walnut tree…just on its own, not with others, just on its own…just there in the middle…on [… read more ]
trees
Fiction
A Sliver of Life
By Sue Shipp We’d just sat down from our labours when Old Roy appeared on the grass path running between the allotments, eating a nectarine, the other hand hidden behind his back. He slopped along [… read more ]
Fiction
Socks
By Helen Salsbury ‘This Christmas,’ his daughter Keira said, ‘we want to get you something special. Not just socks.’ Outside, blood-red leaves were gathering in the concrete corners of the courtyard, swept off early in [… read more ]
Poetry
The Weeping Ash Tree
I love trees and tree hugging can be reassuring and spiritually uplifting. Trees matter to all of us, especially to we who live in cities, because they absorb atmospheric pollutants thus purifying the air we [… read more ]
News
Community Orchards: Planting Trees and Inspirational People
Inspired by the many fabulous environmental initiatives taking place in Portsmouth, Pens of the Earth was set up to encourage writers to celebrate existing projects, and to imagine what might be. This week Helen Salsbury digs [… read more ]
Fiction
FIRE AND BLOOD
By Wendy Metcalfe This morning will be my last meeting with Arthur. Arthur isn’t a man. I’ve had enough of them to last me a lifetime. Arthur is a tree. He’s a young, slender oak, [… read more ]
Fiction
After the Storm
by ‘SC’ All Souls’ Day, approaching dusk. Park regulars nodded greetings as their dogs sniffed around each other. Claire would probably have recognised some of them, perhaps on smiling, chatting or patting terms. Maybe even [… read more ]
Fiction
Donna Trump Wants St James’s Grounds for Solent City HQ
Our resident satirist, Claire Denise Udy, reports on a bizarre twist in the saga of the new Solent Authority. The leader of Portsmouth City Council, Donna Trump, today announced plans for the soon-to-be defunct grounds [… read more ]
Poetry
STAR POems: Bramble
(Blackberry brambles can be stripped of their thorns and used to fashion baskets and other useful artefacts). The first man clips off her thorns one by one, turns her placid and tractable, cuts her [… read more ]