Culture Most Wanted.

Poetry Corner

 
Winning Words – Watch This Space
I’m not sporty. Omming in yoga is about as cardiovascular as I get. So sometimes it frustrates me that sports is given...
Haiku Review – Thin Ice
Our latest Haiku Review was sent in from Seattle writer Jon Parry, written whilst he was watching the US news. experience...



The Beautiful Sin
 She went to take a photo on her phone the other day for her Facebook page, when everything started going a little bit Dorian Gray. She looked at the screen and it was blank behind her some dude in black is doing a devil skank and he says to her: Why don’t you lean a bit closer why don’t you open eyes wider and see? She does. And in a blink...
Haiku Review – Masterchef
Our first Haiku Review is by reader Jenny Shepherd, from London, about the BBC's MasterchefThey over-cook. They under-cook....



The Three Children
 We showcase a compelling new poem by rising talent Carrie SalemThe three children stood in the somehow depthless afternoon light, under a sky that now had a decided yellowish tinge, and looked at the dead bear at the foot of the telephone pole. The pole was leaning crookedly. Four feet up from its base, the creosoted wood was splintered and splashed...
Things You Can Learn How To Be (by doing a search on the Internet)
An insightful new poem by writer Aiko Harman, who Open discovered at the recent London Poetry Festival.How to be a vampire How...



Let Loose the Dogs of War
 Open's poem by Harry Riley is inspired by the current conflict in the Gaza Strip. Let Loose the Dogs of War by Harry Riley Let loose the dogs of war Let bullets fly and bombs reign down We have to kill some more. It’s not our fault, the world must know We cannot stop we must not fail We owe it to our unborn child He has to see, he has to know...
Boy and Sea
 I dream of flotsam and the child’s ocean; Africa’s branch worn smooth by the spin of the sea, rolling through the troughs until the breakers lay it upon the cold sands of England’s autumn, with crisp leaves edging through the fine grip of shell crystal to meet the ancient log. And my stick thrown back, which I carried...



Opening Shot
 By Poetry Review Editor Fiona Sampson, written for the launch of Open MagazineThis is not a dream. Open the door. Pale walls, dark carpet on parquet flooring   and a paint smell which reminds you of long ago,   end of summer,  maybe classrooms – the thought slipping away        as your feet sink...
Without Portfolio
 No I don't have a portfolio, I'd rather have typhus or polio, I hope you don't mind, But I'm starting to find, That I'd rather just stay on the dolio. And no I don't have a CV, There's nothing I wanted to be, There's much more to do, At the back of the queue, So don't bother to interview me. I'm really not out to impress, Though I do have...

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