The Lakebed
In a riverless city, the promise of water is enough. My mother and I pin our hopes to each monsoon, and evenings in June that stroll the circumference of our bayou-to-be. Starved of fish, the empty lake harbours cattle, gangs of dogs and cricket games — we see snatches of batsmen thr
Silk Road
金, the gold caged bodhi tree among monks one quick-tempered another on the phone another ten years old dying monks among dying tourists among red eaves and paper walls they speak of peppered chives and burnt tea (and a cat strutting across the floor) 火, the fire has long deserted t
Crawling Order
forget about hands and knees– his chest is on the ground. he is flattening himself like sourdough naan as men in hats stand sentinel and impatient. this procedure takes all day he is heaving his bones–elbows bear the weight of stomach, ribcage, legs for the distance of one hundred and fif
The Isis Podcasts: In Conversation with Theo Kwek & Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan
Join The Isis for a conversation with the poets Theo Kwek and Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, discussing creativity in lockdown, identity in poetry, and their experiences of Oxbridge. Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Q3YUDRZWTEWxGaStAP2ut?si=e8HsGQnvR525mdaQrNE45w
Telling with my eyes
This piece was originally written by the hugely influential Japanese poet Kenji Miyazawa. Despite his many contributions to Japanese literature, his work is seldom translated into foreign languages due to his ascetic values which kept it hidden from the public eye. This piece is an attempt to intro
Mimicry
Mimicry She stoops to worship Mimicry, old, borrowed and belly-full of what has already been the start and end of ideas. She rewrites Genesis with a stale bible; a tea-ringed, deadened […]
The Isis Podcasts: In Conversation with Bernard O’Donoghue
Join The Isis for a conversation with the celebrated Irish poet and current Emeritus Fellow at Wadham College, Oxford, discussing the relevance of poetry in the modern world, the importance of globalism, and what changes might be made in the way we approach literature. Listen on Spotify: https://ope
Eggshell
Today she has scarcely moved. If there is understanding then that is what she feels this chrysalis Sunday, where new quiet doesn’t boom anymore – his echoes are softer, and she dusts them off into the bubbling boiling with the eggs. Three timid spines crest the water. She raises them carefully,
At Breakfast
The kitchen tiles are finding their corners in the half-light. In the small flat on the top floor of the house, two women sit at the breakfast table. They’re nurses in the early months of 1933. Two empty porridge bowls have been pushed aside. Two half-drunk cups of tea stand between them on the ta