Utilising the Rare Books Collection and the manuscripts held in the Archive Collections (University of Dundee), this trove of disparate pieces is a fine example of the different ways that creative writers find answers to a common challenge. Fragments of ancient text with wonderfully obsolescent language, books on anatomy with archaic text and exquisite artwork, tomes Read More
Passing over the delicate blooms, looking radiant in its flight, the blue monarch lands on a honeysuckle, the air filled by the aroma. Serene, it pauses for a moment before it flutters again. Undecided, it glides onto another bloom, this time a rose. The rose – ivory and silky disguises an ominous secret. Looking angelic, Read More
Forwards opening, backwards closing desire widening, hours leaking, words as poems, poems as prayers: time home love. So many ways of seeing the forward thrust of desire, the steady backward tug of time, beating, knowing, not knowing. © Geraldine Gould From A Cabinet of Curiosities: Reimagining Rare Books. A disparate trove of pieces created by students of Read More
With an osprey on his back, in full flyte, and looking as if he might leave: an abruption in nature. Instead, offering further anecdotes, he crosses over into other territories not covered by his map of words; accosting a soldier with questions of how it feels to kill. The osprey on my own back surges Read More
The night is unkind and I won’t go home to it. I hide until the building empties. Security might think I’m here or they may not; either way there is no challenge. My wandering begins when the building is silent. My feet find a path through the book stacks and I let them, though I Read More
The hard chew, the too bitter pill to swallow, wash down, digest. To accept mouthy murder, Inflict linguistic lacerations only time can heal. I broke teeth and severed tongue. I lived with a mouth, ulcers clustered. My roof collapsed but truth lay underneath, buried and lost. I bet if I retched right, regurgitated, I could Read More
The cruel hands of wicked men, made me their prey. I can do nothing but peer between fingers into wicked eyes. Throw the word ‘laws’ into the silence and pray. © Nicole Gemine From A Cabinet of Curiosities: Reimagining Rare Books. A disparate trove of pieces created by students of Writing Practice and Study, inspired by their work Read More
Prickly all over, but for spider silk blooms. Thorns studding stems, give purchase even for earthbound aluxob — any height might be scaled. No barrier built keeps them out these bearers of cures and dreams. Like their cousins everywhere, supple skirts spread to reveal baby rattle pod which, when finally split, spills myriad tiny balls. Read More
He steps out of the limo, lithe and supple. He glides over the carpet. Slides between camera flashes. Pirouettes around questions. Its almost comical, the excessive grace with which he dances around the paparazzi. He pauses to wave at a cluster of middle-aged women. They shriek in delight. Then an arm winds its way around Read More
I’m donating parts of my body when I die, but I don’t want to donate the whole thing in case I become a body for medical students to practice on. I’ve heard rumours of the way they sometimes treat the bodies they work with and it isn’t pretty or dignified. I accept it shouldn’t matter Read More