Many thanks to all those who have contributed to morphrog23. We are delighted to have received submissions from across the UK, Europe and beyond.

morphrog23 has poems from 18 new and established poets.

Once again we have used photos by Martin Kay to complement some of the poems submitted for morphrog23. Here is a gallery of some of these images.

J.S. Watts has been widely published as a poet and novelist. We are delighted to run two poems and a prose piece for morphrog23.

Marian is a poet from the west coast of Ireland. We loved both the poems she submitted for morphrog23, and also their titles: Honeyed Youth and Sea Ghost.

Michael Bartholomew-Biggs has become a bit of a regular in the morphrog tavern, and we are grateful for four contributions by him this time round.

Ian C. Smith writes poetry and prose, he is based in the Gippsland of southern Australia. We are pleased to be able to publish a distinctive and personal prose piece by a talented writer.

Jane Angue writes in French and English, from the foothills of the Cevennes. We enjoyed her poems, and welcome anything similar that breaks down borders and boundaries. Merci beaucoup!

Delighted to include five poems by Jenny Hockey in morphrog23. Jenny has been widely published already, and her poems are characterised by delicacy and poise built on a bedrock of clearly visualised detail.

Delighted to include three poems by Yuan Hongri in morphrog23. These have been expertly translated by Manu Mangattu. Both English and Mandarin versions are included.

As well as his poetry and story-telling interests, Aaron Rice seems to enjoy his wine. Very happy to run his two poems, and to reflect upon his viticultural influences in New Zealand and more recently England.

Enigmatic and stimulating poems from a German Italian poet from the South Tyrol.

Delighted to have Angela Kirby back with four poems that have unexpected twists and turns, taut humour balanced by unspoken silences.

Anne Marie O’Brien is a new writer whose poems blend clearly-spoken emotion with ordinary and everyday realities. We found her writing interesting and full of potential.

Daniel Bennett’s poems are evocative of place but have a liminal quality that takes the reader beyond time and location. We are very happy to run five poems by this author, whose poems have recently been reviewed in the Frogmore Press.

We selected two poems from DJ Tyrer, somehow the titles seem loosely linked to the travails of the Covid debacle.

Not much that we know about Gregory Dally but we thoroughly enjoyed the mysterious poem that we assume relates to the Ahuriri river in New Zealand.

Absolutely loved the selection sent in by Guy Martyn. Humorous, defiant and offbeat, we would love to have run all of them!

“Then suddenly from underneath / poems come spilling out / like a long string of silk handkerchiefs /
until it’s impossible to close the box”. What else to say?

Joseph Eastell has contributed two poems to this edition of morphrog. He has been published in a number of poetry magazines and won an Eric Gregory award in 2018.

We have selected four poems and some haikus from Ian Heffernan’s submission. The eastern influences give these poems a resonance that feels relevant at this moment.