Poetry is concerned with space.

Every poet treats it differently. For some it could be a breath between the lines, the stretching of a body, or the silence between two which tells too much. As the editor of these works, I found that space, both on the page and within the writing, was a response to the theme of pockets.

In Melanie Adam’s ‘Being: Mark Four’, space is the territory of the persona, it is both home and hatred — a constant longing for something more. Whereas in Hannah Baker’s ‘Solid Sand and Broken Water’, time is explored within landscapes and images. It serves as a place from which the persona calls back to, grows from, explores and rips to the present. ‘The Answer To That Sir, Is Nothing’ by Georgia Buley  uses space as the staggered, slow unravelling of the voice. The persona questions: what is it I hold dear, or what do I hold at all? Within Rohan Viswalingam’s ‘Rorka’, the threaded fissures within the earth give birth to a creature that grows far greater, dominating and shaping the land as it sees fit.

All of these were a pleasure to read, and I hope you find yourself looking for the space each one has carved for itself in issue seven.

Written by Alec Mallia.

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