Paul Brookes
Paul Brookes is a shop asst. Lives in a cat house full of teddy bears. First play performed at The Gulbenkian Theatre, Hull. His chapbooks include debut chapbook: The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). Collections: A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018), As Folk Over Yonder (Afterworld Books, 2019). A poetry collaboration with artist Jane Cornwell resulted in "Wonderland in Alice, plus other ways of seeing", (JC Studio Press, 2021). The beginning of the "Ganders" septology, whose other books are: "As Folktaleteller" (ImpSpired, 2022), "These Random Acts of Wildness, (Glass Head Press, 2023), "Othernesses", (JC Studio Press, 2023), Wolf Eye (Red Ceilings Press, 2023), Wolf Eye Territory (ImpSpired, 2024), Ever Striding Edge (Dark Winter Press, 2024). "The Dude Work," (Sherwood Press, 2024). Не has had work broadcast on BBC Radio 3 The Verb and videos of his Self-Isolation sonnet sequence featured by Barnsley Museums and Hear My Voice Barnsley. He also does photography commissions.
Recently his work has been broadcast on BBC Radio Sheffield. He does not believe in competitions, but has been nominated for the Rhysling Prize, and thrice for the Pushcart Prize. Recently, guest edited for Setumag "Some British Working Class Poets" for a second year.
He edits The Wombwell Rainbow Interviews and a new Substack webzine, The Starbeck Orion.
https://thewombwellrainbow.wordpress.com
https://substack.com/The Starbeck Orion | Substack
PoetryMelismatics
Every evening I enjoy the non-verbal sounds of the boy next door as he chases up and down the same route making a cleared…
PoetryThe Bullhead
factory, not discarded and forgot. Sharp claws snap at my scales, move under this hard flatness, this safe dark hiding spot from sharpness cuts…
so memo gone around
A bigger vase so she can flourish again. Pastimes are awaiting reopening Folk like me who have no skin in the game. Signs from…
PoetryRemoval
Ocean waves redact what was printed previously. Gust rearranges the clouds as if this is what it meant to say, then quickly rearranges the…
PoetryThe Pipe
Brown polished wood tiny cupped in grandad's big hands, the bowl almost dwarfed by his thumb, his fingers in the plastic pouch turning the…
PoetryHedgehog in Winter
I sense outside this entwined, closed in tall. Before the Long Cold I gather tussocks and twigs together. I have eaten all I need…
PoetryRedwing
You may not see us again in this place, noshing on this bright juiciness that glints a starlike pattern to our hungry pace amongst…
Flash and Short FictionRetreat
The sanctuary was hidden deep in the glaucous forest, a place where the air smelled of earth and sky. Every tree seemed to hold…
PoetryToad Flax Leaf Beetle: The Life
Within, I chomp softness, shed my selves, walk into warmth, without, navigate scent as I rise into air, find him, dig into succulence, lay…
PoetryHear The
horses in the sisters tales of the farm, pouring down the town streets like milk words up turned from the churns on a cart…
PoetryChandelier Spider
Once I had to constantly remake home when it was destroyed. I patiently made restrung each strand between brightnesses, honed each line for those…
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