E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

As they say in show biz, last but not least.... and it is true, David Spittle is among equals as he completes our list today - this gloriously sunny hot London day in June -  of the 12 superb young poets shortlisted for this year's Melita Hume Poetry Prize... who will the winner be, come Monday? Only our Judge Toby de las Rivas really knows for sure, at this stage, as we draw our breath, and await his considered report... David Spittle (pictured) is currently completing a PhD on the poetry of John Ashbery in relation to Surrealism at Newcastle University. He has published reviews in Hix Eros and regularly contributes to PN Review . David’s poetry has been published in 3am, Zone , the delinquent, and is soon to be translated into French courtesy of Black Herald Press . In addition to poetry, he has written the libretti to three operas, performed at various venues around Cardiff and at Hammersmith Studios in London. In 2014 David was commissioned to write a song cycl...

EDITOR OF THE BOHEMYTH Michael Naghten Shanks is a poet and the editor of The Bohemyth . His writing has featured in various journals and anthologies, including gorse , The Quietus and elsewhere. In May 2015 he will read as part of the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series during the International Literature Festival Dublin.     I AM YOUR REFRIGERATOR AT 3 A.M. WHEN YOU ARE HUNGRY I could not consume the stars above the beach in Enniscrone or stop the soot of London mixing with Camden coke. In different seasons, love is ice-cream: we want to lick our favourite flavour all year, even if it makes us sick. I give you a call and you come over. We watch a Werner Herzog documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams , about simple drawings of extinct animals. One of us says: Do you think the artist ate the art or the art ate the artist? We know the beginning and the end before we press play. We consume designer drugs not designed for us; our...

Elizabeth Parker has a BA in English and Creative Writing from Warwick University and an MA in Mythology from Bristol. She taught secondary English for eight years and is now a private tutor. She has had a poem published in Magma 59 and was shortlisted for last year's Bridport Poetry Prize.   SHORTLISTED FOR LAST YEAR'S BRIDPORT PRIZE ONE SUNDAY   we write inside the shadow of a tree a flea of light waits on your knuckle I pass you a fresh cartridge and you squeeze the plastic tube until a black bead swells from the nib we barely speak, you sneezing throat flecked with pollen my eyes sneaking onto your page into thickets of ink. poem copyright the author 2015

POET-IN-RESIDENCE AT THE MUSEUM OF ROYAL WORCESTER   Ben Parker’s debut pamphlet, The Escape Artists , was published by tall-lighthouse in 2012 and shortlisted for the 2013 Michael Marks Award. He is currently poet-in-residence at The Museum of Royal Worcester. Church Flatts Farm All night the waves are in his room lifting him from half-dreams of bladder-wrack and drift-wood. The walls breathe like filling sails, the blood-tide beats in his ears, he is feverish and sleepless, far from instruments, with no navigator and the Pole Star lost behind plaster. When arthritis closed around his hands he left the sea and made his way here, the furthest he could move inland, and stripped his boat to make a bed. Mornings now he wakes with dry lips, salt-blur glazing the window. poem copyright the author 2015

SELECTED FOR POETRY IRELAND INTRODUCTIONS 2015 Julie Morrissy is a poet from Dublin currently living in her home city after spending several years living in Canada and the USA. She has been selected for Poetry Ireland Introductions 2015, and her poetry has featured or is forthcoming in Cyphers , The Dalhousie Review , Abridged and The Honest Ulsterman . The poem below is from her shortlisted unpublished collection. Moving Day   it is straight forward: boots or die boots or your toes stick together like tongues on ice boots or an all-inclusive with trays of crab claws and prawn cocktail delicious sweltering heat just a plane ride away   I write letters home inquiring about the handheld heat packs from childhood postage costs one dollar eighty-five cents and five to seven business days - not counting Family Day another provincial quirk   like the wine rack and the difference bet...

SHE GRADUATED WITH A MASTERS FROM UCL Jessica Mayhew's pamphlet, Someone Else's Photograph , was published in 2012 by Crystal Clear Creators. She graduated with a Masters from University College London in 2015. Her poetry and fiction have been published in magazines and online, including in Ambit , Stand and Staple .     Rainy Season Monks stay put so they don’t hurt the shoots. We trawl through gutter-run the colour of precious wood for another meal of rice while cockroaches tide up walls above the lapping line. Fon Tok , rain tongue spitting on a foot of soi water, lightning I cannot pronounce but count, gaining ground each time saffron dusk cracks – five miles, four miles, three. We lie with windows open, swiping mosquitoes we can only hear but smear someone else’s blood, mingled with mine, down white paint. When I sleep, the rain is bats back home that have somehow learne...

Eyewear will be announcing the winner of the Melita Hume Poetry Prize in early June.  We are now halfway (at number 6) through our alphabetic posting on each of the 12 shortlisted poets.  I include a copy of the whole list below as well, to jog your memories.       Anna Mace has an interest in modernist, symbolist and experimental poetry traditions.   Within her multi-disciplinary approach she is keen to explore relationships between text, art, science and performance.   Recent work includes, collaborative project and publication, Revolve:R with film responses to her poetry by artists, Rammatik, One Five West and Maria Anastassiou . She will be poet in residence for the National Trust, summer 2015.   She has lived in Europe, India and Japan but now resides in Bristol, UK.     POET IN RESIDENCE FOR THE NATIONAL TRUST, SUMMER 2015     Not I   I t was one to remember,   ...

A TEACHER FROM MANCHESTER AND A POET Michael Conley is a 30-year-old teacher from Manchester.  He has been published in a variety of magazines including Magma , Rialto , Interpreters House and Bare Fiction .  His first pamphlet, Aquarium , was published by Flarestack in 2014. The poem here below is from his shortlisted collection for the Melita Hume Poetry Prize 2015.   We Discover A Severed Thumb In The Woods   Lying either side of it, we play who dares get their tongue closest.   It nestles in a pile of wet leaves, real as a joke thumb.     It mightn't be a thumb after all; could be a stubby finger. It's hard to tell   without the context of a hand. It smells like the thing you can’t find   in the fridge. You are winning: your tongue is practically touching it.     poem copyright the author 2015.