The Belfast Review Team | 7 March, 2024
Welcome to Week 3 of our Spring Blog. Each week we will feature a handful of new creative works by artists, photographers, writers, poets, and song writers. Different days of the week highlight different creative forms: Feast Your Eyes Sundays (art, photography), Wordy Tuesday (fiction, flash, nonfiction), and Rhythm-Verse Thursday (poetry, song lyrics).
This week we're exploring the theme of 'Inspiration.' As in, the spark that takes our creativity in a new direction, opens up a new way of looking at the world, gives us the permission we need to bring something new into being.
In other words – it's what lights your fire.
Featured poet: PS Conway
This poem caught our attention as part of a trend we noticed with the last round of submissions – taking inspiration from myth and folklore. It was almost like writers and poets were peering into the future and seeing a time when Nature reasserts herself, the old gods and goddesses are reborn, and mythical creatures will walk beside us once more.
Is it the looming climate crisis, the soullessness of everyday life under capitalism, the cost of living crisis that stirs the collective spirit with a need for simpler, more magical times? Or is it simply that each generation's artists end up in dialogue with the past, examining the ideas that have come before, and feel called to carve a new space for them in the future?
In any case, this poem takes you into the nursery, at the dawn of a newborn's life, where a parent contemplates the child's resemblance to myths of the past and envisions a future where they follow the rules of magic instead of men.
Welcome to the magic.
stolen ears
PS CONWAY
the moon was full on the night you were born
i held you in my arms by the window
your eyes ageless with knowing, so careworn
in silence, awash in her pallid glow
for ‘twas Áine who pulled upon your soul
like the tide, imbued you with the pride of
a goddess reborn, high upon a knoll
summoning us lakeside with songs of love
songs of healing, no impetuous sea
need weaken your midsummer reveries,
born to feed the passions ‘tween earth and sidhe
in your wee eyes those fae-forged memories
born not to heed the false commands of men
oh no! born to be heard, bend their knees with fear
for they are in the presence of their Better, when
you line your pockets with their stolen ears
ARTIST BIO
PS Conway has published 40 poems across 3 online journals and 12 poetry anthologies. One Amazon Best Seller, so far!
PS will publish his first poetry anthology “Echoes Lost in Stars” in 2024 through an independent literary press.
PS finds fascination in words birthed from dark, literate, and emotive places.
Website: PoetrybyPS.com
Special thanks to the poet for trusting us with their work.
Thanks to all of you readers for reading! Be sure to like, follow, and share.
Check out our other posts this week:
Feast Your Eyes Sunday (3 Mar) with Art by Nina Staack
Wordy Tuesday (5 Mar) with Nonfiction by Sarah d'Episcopo
and Fiction by Marie O'Shea
Rhythm-Verse Thursday (7 Mar) with Poetry by Shannon Carlin
Follow us:
Instagram @thebelfastreview
Twitter/X @belfastreview
Comments