Peter Devonald - A superb selection of his poetry and latest news...
Awards
2025 Great honour to be nominated for The Broken Spine Readers’ Choice Award 2025:
Please vote for me! Voting takes place 1st March - 7th, 2025. https://thebrokenspine.co.uk/2025/02/22/the-broken-spine-readers-choice-award-2025-your-vote-your-voice/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2025-02-22&utm_campaign=Readers+Choice+Award+2025+Read+Now+Vote+from+March+1st+&fbclid=IwY2xjawIyeaRleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHUUj6emHSufr9Z_u-PGSb3JY6KyMB3qnfWUt97i_yFI1jt-Si-nClrwclQ_aem_jg1pP0zFTIAcjk8oGaYJKQ
All the poems can be read here, including some of the best moments from the wonderful Broken Spine Arts. Huge thanks to Alan Parry and everyone at Broken Spine Books - I've been so honoured to be included in four of their wonderful anthologies, including:
Biography
I lost my way in Sheffield,
took too many wrong turns,
found love, caught in an avalanche,
became just confused dead ends,
obsessively compulsive yours,
too much twilight and dark nights,
too little flowers and real light,
went too far inward, too much past,
too much screaming, not enough ice cream,
push it down, down, further, further, still,
till I was still, lying on the gurney,
a lung biopsy, searching for road maps,
chronic illness, restraints, restrictions,
medications, melancholia, out of here.
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. 2025 No One Lives Here Anymore High-Rise Poetry Anthology Broken Spine. https://www.amazon.co.uk/High-Rise-Brutalist-Thematic-Slimline-Anthologies/dp/B0DX27Y5Y5
. 2024 Unfinished - Reels: Cinematic Poetry Anthology Broken Spine. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DPB72865?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2024-11-30&utm_campaign=Early+Access+Reels+Cinematic+Poetry
. 2025 A Short Film About Longing TPW Poetry Prize Longlist. Judge Andrew Jamison.
Published in Lancaster Litfest 'World Into Worlds' Poetry Map https://worldintowords.humap.site/map/browse
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Glimpsed From The Train
Flickering of colours in an enigmatic collage,
stations too busy to pause our journey,
sheep in the fields wave weary hello’s,
people’s lives obliquely whispered --
then away, away, faster and faster
to different destinations, a memory
of summer sun, glimpsed in reflections,
beautiful beaches and perfect blue sea,
spring cherry blossom falling as snow,
magnolia in full bloom, a recollection
of celebrations, birthday cakes shine bright,
wishes, promises, eloquent elegant vows --
all passed too soon, a strange vanishing act,
cherish ever shimmering moment, watching
our world pass by at a hundred miles an hour,
witnessing a million miracles lived spectacularly,
then gone, gone, a shattered priceless vase,
an empty field, a reflection of an empty room,
a tree in winter, a regret, a pause, a moment,
flickering of colours in an enigmatic collage.
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Publications
2025 Tiny Butterfly Effect – SkySurfing, children’s poetry anthology. Huge thanks to the wonderful Ed Jonathan Humble –Profits go to Juvenile Arthritis Research: https://dirigibleballoon.org/shop
2025 Glimpsed From The Train, Ghosts Are Worried, Dreams Of Paradise - Lancaster Litfest 'World Into Worlds' Poetry Map https://worldintowords.humap.site/map/browse
2025 Music is Moonlight and Winter Solstice Issue Five of Lapidus Magazine – in the Power of...Environment and Power of... Music sections. Huge thanks to the editors Alison Cable & Kate Poll https://lapidus.org.uk/magazine/lapidus-magazine-issue-five/
2025 Nostalgia Songs published in Buzzin Bards 2024 Poetry Anthology book ed. Maddie McGivney. The book launch for this anthology is at: March 3rd Door Opens at 7pm - The Peer Hat, 14-16 Faraday St, Manchester, M1 1BE
https://www.localgemspoetrypress.com/buzzin-bards-poetry-anthology.html
2025 Ella (Mary Beth Ella Gertrude) - 20th February 2025
Living Fairy Tales - 27th February 2025
Tomorrow I Cease to be Human - 6th March 2025
Huge thanks to the editor Beth O’Brien: https://www.disabledtales.co.uk/poetry
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Stirring Of Memories
I remember...
The blue between light and dark.
Day and night, all in flux.
I remember...
The sense of angels in the air.
Autumn leaves rustle and blow free. All free.
All caught in the space
between light and dark.
Sun and moon.
The game of the stars and the rain.
Bathing in the silence of happy tears.
I remember...
Feeling the sun rise upon my face.
My tears brushed away by the rising sun.
Clear Spring. A day awakening to the wonder of itself.
I remember...
A day flushed with opportunities.
A day full of dreams and magic.
Memories and bliss.
I remember...
I remember.
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Publications con…
2025 The World Directed by David Lynch – Culture Matters. Thank you to the editor Mike. https://www.culturematters.org.uk/the-world-directed-by-david-lynch/
2025 Seven Haiku - published by Wildfire Words. Huge thanks to the editor, Howard Timms. Includes audio: https://wildfire-words.com/haiku/
2025 Three Cut Up Ready Made Poems. VoidSpace Zine Huge thanks to the wonderful editor, Katy. https://voidspacezine.com/cut-it-up-special/
2024 Manic Street Preacher 4Ever Lost at 27: Musicians, Artists, Mortals Cicada Song Press https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1966275013?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
2025 The World Directed by David Lynch – New Verse Review's special David Lynch tribute Huge thanks to Ethan McGuire.
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A Falcon, a Song and an Unfinished Song
If I jump at the moment the lift lands, will I survive?
If I dream the best memories, will I become a falcon?
If I forget about the terror, will I fly into freedom?
Remember our favourite songs, focus on the lyrics,
remember gifts we played with as children,
recall the time we thought we’d last forever.
Are we all just unfinished songs
waiting in the blue period
between light and dark?
Are we all just fragile moments
thrown together in random order,
waiting for linear structure?
We’re falling, faster now, faster,
trying to make our mind detach,
all I can think about is flying,
all I can think about is you,
the dark and light of twilight,
it all fades so softly into ---
the shape of forgetting,
the lift about to land,
jump!
COMING SOON
2025 Whisper Apocalypse Sing Glow: City at Night Poems Anthology – Broken Spine. Huge thanks to the wonderful editor Alan Parry and all at Broken Spine.
·2025 Monthly Poetry Corner and Culture Supplement - Manchester Post and Stockport Post.
https://communitynewsgm.co.uk/stockport-post-newspapers/
2025 Unknown Poems Poietics of error. Thanks to Marie Molins. https://mariemolins.com/
2025 I am the Eighties The Fig Tree Coal Mining Special Second Issue ed Timothy Fellows
2025 Uncanny Dream Story Hobo Camp Review: Summer: a David Lynch tribute issue
2025 My Mother The Rainforest Bards Across The Pond
2025 Blue Water Serenade Tiny Seed Literary Journal’s Water issue. 4/11/2025 https://tinyseedjournal.com/
2025 Commended (final 5) for a Poetry Award – announcement later this month