I’m reading too much
           into everything 

(old women and dogs
           take pity) 

I take bus rides
           all over town 

the razed cityscapes
           comfort me…           

after months & months
           a secret geometry 

finally emerges
           over Primrose Hill 

my life illuminated
           by a lie 

a yellow zigzag         pissed
           against an unfinished sky

by Mark Wynne

News from the Centre! We are delighted to say that one of our recent ignitionpress pamphlets, Hinge by Alycia Pirmohamed, has been shortlisted for the Michael Marks Poetry Award! The winner from the five pamphlet shortlist will be announced on 14 December, and you can register for the free online event via the Michael Marks website, where you can also find more details of the pamphlet and publisher shortlists. You can find out more about Alycia’s pamphlet on our website (scroll down the page). 

Our latest poetry podcast is now live and features poet Chris Beckett discussing his new book Tenderfoot (Carcanet, 2020), which explores his years growing up in Ethiopia. You can listen via the website or find the podcast on the usual podcast providers – just search for Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre Podcast.

Many thanks to all of you who attended our two recent events: the launch of three new ignitionpress pamphlets by Isabelle Baafi, Daniel Fraser, and Kostya Tsolakis, and the International Poetry Competition Awards. If you missed them, you can watch them again on our YouTube channel. There is more about the pamphlets on our website. 

‘Primrose Hill’ is copyright © Mark Wynne, 2020. It is reprinted from Frank & Stella (tall-lighthouse, 2020) by permission of tall-lighthouse. You can read more about the book on the tall-lighthouse website.

Frank & Stella by Mark Wynne marks the return to the pamphlet form for tall-lighthouse in the first of a series. These powerful, intimate poems use Frank Auerbach’s work as a biographical mirror to tell the truth without confessing. Weaving extracts of letters, interviews and art commentary from Auerbach’s world, together with fragments of the poets own life, creates a stunningly evocative sequence of poetry that lingers in the mind long after each page has been turned.

Mark Wynne has been published in Magma, South Bank Poetry, The Moth and Ambit. Frank & Stella is his debut pamphlet. You can read more about Mark’s pamphlet and the thinking behind it on the tall-lighthouse website, where you can also hear Mark reading some of his poems. You can follow him on Twitter. 

tall-lighthouse has a reputation for publishing exciting new poetry, being the first to publish Sarah Howe, Helen Mort, Liz Berry, Jay Bernard, Ailbhe Darcy, Rhian Edwards, Vidyan Ravinthiran, Emily Berry and many others. Learn more about the press on the tall-lighthouse website and follow tall-lighthouse on Facebook and Twitter.

Copyright information: please note that the copyrights of all the poems displayed on the website and sent out on the mailing list are held by the respective authors, translators or estates, and no work should be reproduced without first gaining permission from the individual publishers.