Editor: George Simmers
In April Snakeskin, Sharon Phillips has rather a good poem (‘Looking Good’) which references a seventies book, The Young British Poets, edited by Jeremy Robson.
Here is a scan of the book’s cover. I wonder how many of the poets readers can recognise. I think I score half a dozen definites, plus a couple of possibles.
No prizes – but how many can you identify?
As the unpleasant Covid-19 virus spreads, Snakeskin has been sent a pair of poems commenting on it. We thought we’d share them with you.
From America, Laura Johnson has sent us this Bop (I’ll explain what a Bop is later):
Bop: Crazy
An unknown illness from the distant East
crawls across our unsuspecting globe,
something like a cold virus, at least
like the very worst gunky-lung sort of cold,
somewhat like the flu we already know
though Trump’s in trouble for saying so.
Read the rest of this entry »The coronavirus is making us crazy.
Bruce Bentzman, Snakeskin’s roving reporter and noter of curiosities, saw and snapped this view in Swansea, of a poster proclaiming a great truth.
Read the rest of this entry »
The editorial inbox for November Snakeskin has been the fullest in the magazine’s history. There was a cornucopia of short verse to choose from.
This made the task of editing the hardest it’s ever been. From the hundreds of poems submitted, there were a very large number with merit, a solid phalanx of the worthy. How to choose?
I had started with the idea that I would present an issue with just twenty poems. That idea went by the board. A lot more squeezed in, and there are still poems that I regret not using.
Were the poems I chose ‘the best’? That’s always a bit subjective. They were the ones that struck a chord with me. Many because of what they were saying, some because of their use of words or their use of form. Some because they were funny.
Many thanks to everyone who sent us poems. I’ll try to write a note to all who offered poems, but it’s going to take a while.
Meanwhile – enjoy the issue.
(By the way, the next two Snakeskins will be standard issues. Any length, any subject, any style. Send your poems to the usual address.)
There has recently been something of a craze, on Instagram and elsewhere, for wrapper rhymes – that is, short poem written on the wrappers of sweets and other food.
It began , apparently, with the discovery that Ted Hughes, a fan of Tunnock’s Caramel Wafers, had taken to writing short pieces in praise of them on the wrappers.
To have swallowed a crocodile
Would make anybody smile
But to swallow a Caramel Wafer
is safer
Someone who has taken to the craze with gusto is Helena Nelson. I’ve just received Branded, a nicely published pamphlet, containing over thirty of the pieces she has written on wrappers. She must have spent a fortune on confectionery, it strikes me – but then, I reflect, money spent on chocolate is rarely money wasted.
Read the rest of this entry »I scan the faces on the train.
Did she vote Leave? Was he Remain?
But each one’s in a private world,
And gives no hint what thoughts are curled
And dreaming darkly in their brains.
British people packed in trains
Will by instinct always take
Some pains to make their masks opaque.
That grumpy-looking man for sure
Seems a Leaver caricature,
Whilst she there with the hardback book
Has maybe a Remainer look.
Or maybe doesn’t – I can not
Do more than guess who voted what.
Nor can I know what made them choose,
And how far they’re impelled by views
Perhaps known to themselves alone
And incoherent as my own.
November Snakeskin will be a Short Poems special issue. Any subject, any style – but nothing over nine lines.
Send your minuscule efforts to editor@snakeskin.org.uk
A reminder that the deadline for the ‘Environs’ issue of Snakeskin is August 23rd.
Tristan tells me that he already has a good number of very good contributions, but last-minute arrivals will be welcomed.
Send your poems to tristanmoss@hotmail.co.uk
Back in 2012, Bruce Bentzman published a collection of his Snakeskin essays. In those days he called them ‘Suburban Soliloquies’.
Since then he has had many adventures and experiences, and these are chronicled in the successor volume, just published. Enshrined Inside Me takes him away from the suburbs and into urban retirement, and then, rather unexpectedly to Wales, where he now lives.
The presiding spirit of this collection is Bruce’s late wife Barbara (‘my more significant other’, he has always called her). Barbara was British and had family in Wales, so she took Bruce away from his American roots to Cardiff, a city which he has found most congenial. The book’s last essays speak of the months leading up to Barbara’s death, and of Bruce’s grief.
Those who have enjoyed Bruce’s essays over the years will welcome the opportunity to have them collected in book form.
Enshrined Inside Me can be ordered by clicking here.
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September Snakeskin will be a special issue on the theme of ‘Environs’, guest-edited by Tristan Moss. Tristan writes:
Environs will be the theme for the September edition of Snakeskin. Please interpret broadly.
Poems could be about the environs of a town or a city: for example,
greenbelts, housing estates, rubbish tips, wastelands, nature reserves
or parks. Or could be about the environs of a pub, school, workplace,
allotment, shed, farm or space shuttle. Or you might want to write a
poem about the virtual environs of a video game or website. Some argue
that we now live in a global village, so by this measure the whole world
could be seen as our environs.
Poems might show how an area’s environs have changed. Or they might
show the effect of change on you (or other people); or the effect you or
others have had on an area’s environs.
These poems should have a strong sense of place, with well chosen specific details, but there may be exceptions to this, too.
I welcome all forms of poetry, from traditional ones to experimental ones.
Send your poems to Tristan at tristanmoss@hotmail.co.uk before August 23rd.
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 | It’s (almost)… on Twenty-Five Years |
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