Established 2006 · An independent poetry social enterprise
Widening the room for poetry, and for the people who make it…
Poetryspace is a small social enterprise publishing contemporary poetry, running open competitions and supporting workshops. Every book sold helps widen participation in poetry and other creative writing.
Editor’s choice
poetryspace · October 2025
Believing in the Planet
by Myra Schneider
Myra Schneider’s 16th poetry collection.
Poem of the Day
Today · 26 August 2026Carnival Ride
— Johanna Boal 2014
Each time the Ferris wheel appearsit’s bigger and better than its rival,launching, then gradually rotating,up, up to meet the same sovereigntythe big blue skies. Happily spinningTurning out loud squeals and laughterlike your colours Ferris wheel.Looking down from the topwhen it stops, the life all seemsso far away, the families and friends.Promptly the whirling makes a hummingmoving back down, coming nearer,queues, trees, bridges as large as the skies.
Rhydymwyn
— Maureen Weldon 2014
Yesterday was a walking day,in a Welsh valley – whisperspast an ice age.We wandered to the wetlandwhere teasel flowers live:nesting boxes for sand martins:big sandy cylinders on poles;a sort of porch, an extension on the edge. Yesterday was a walking day,in the Welsh Valley.In World War Two mustard gaswas made. Bombs.The secret work to split the atom.Hush, hush, bats live there nowin the high tower laboratory. Yesterday was a walking day,in that Welsh Valley.It was autumn.Being so old, yet young,the sun dipped and dyedcolours on the trees. Windmade a slight rustle around a sleeping ash…Yes, the trees remember, remember…
In the Beginning
— Beverley Ferguson 2014
That night I slept as a single laid out on a bedin a ward filled with the presence of strangers.So much strangeness. You came home that dayto a folded slip of paper lying by the front door.This was the start of their many coded messagesyou would try to decipher, keep on trying and fail.My colleagues who had been trained in psychic painflocked away far enough from their fear of catchingmy madness. It could be their madness lying there.Friends who live now in my heart prayed for all of ustheir words forming cloud nets in other dimensions.Professionals found their way into my secret tunnelscrawling through breath squeezing spaces, not too farin case they’d never come back. This was the beginning.
Jeep Safari, Night Sitting
— Roger Elkin 2015
We’re out in the safari jeepten of us, game-spotters,under the vast canopyof the southern night sky,stars scattered like saltfrom heaven’s salt-mill. Trevor has the lamp,arcing it over St. Lucia’s Wetlands Parkin pans of light – grey-green pools at distance –that ghost over foliage and brush up againstthe treeline, the grass clumps,cut-down pine-tree stumps,the safari palmstrying to find sightings –rhino, nightjar, kudu,bush buck, duiker, buffalo –in fact, anything we may or may not already have seen. Isolated in seas of darknesssave where Trevor’s lamp invades,pins of light wink, blinking back. There’s a clear division in the darkness,ebony brushed by the moon,and though no ground is being given,nothing substantial gained,the motion is being carried.The parliament of animals have decidedthe eyes have it. (And keep it tonight they will …)
Pasha
— Prem Kumari Srivastava 2015
How much do I love?A foolish dilemma.Proscribed?Most would say.But I know one who loved from the bottom of her heart.Patrician and a pasha of loveceded, sacrificed, submitted to the four that she cherished.I wonder today after years gone bywhat she did, was it right?They, who are god’s purest gift,become impure as the clock ticks away, recalcitrant.The one who stands uncontaminated is SHEIn a timeless zone, uncontestedbut by whom?Force majeureebullient, with a brioanda punchy topicality about life even as it trundled.A rich lode that memory will excavate.Ruminating on another note, resignedly, miltonicallyI justify the ways of God to men.God made mothers this way,dismembering both horizon and limit.Dispel the query andLove more and more.
A Conversation
— Di Coffey 2015
‘It’d be expensive,’ you say.‘So what?’ I say. ‘It’d be life enhancing.’ ‘There’d be no money left when I’m gone,’ you say.‘As if that matters,’ I say. ‘And who says you’re going?’ ‘It’d have to be big,’ you say. ‘For my wheelchair to fit in.’‘Plus plants,’ I say. ‘Lots of plants.’ ‘No lilies,’ you say. ‘Lilies kill cats.’‘False palms then,’ I say. ‘Palms would be good.’ So a conservatory is built of plastic and glassand neighbouring greenery filters sunlight. And you loved it for six whole months before you died.
The Reward
— Di Coffey 2015
And so the daywinds to its close.Inky fingers pushexercise booksinto bulging satchels,desk lids are slammed,punishments (almost) forgotten.In my homemade uniform;turquoise gingham dressbrown blazer sportingthe Clare Terrace badge –the only item affordablefrom the school outfitter –I slip awayto descend the mightyJacob’s Ladder.Hedged by decaying buildings,its one hundred and eleven stepshave been sculpted by the treadof my ancestors. And across the road from its feet,The Libraryand all the books ofThe Famous Five.
The Sun in Me
— Moira Andrew 2015
The sun is in me,pale morning flamessetting my still-sleepingheart alight. The wind is in me,clear blue breathleading my bare feetinto a new day. The sea is in me,deep green waveswhispering wild musicin my ears. The river is in me,dark brown watersswirling its questionsaround my head. The moon is in me,sad silver beamspainting my dreamswith shadows.
Trees by the Eastward Wall
— Julia D. McGuinness 2015
No urgent axe has hackedto clear threatened groundso here, steady and serene they have outgrown Wall,crowns towering high.They stand in long time, gaze down decades, infusewhispers adrift on the air.But year by year their roots weave deeper still. Nourishedon loss and detritus, what knowingdo they draw from earth? Fragments of old tools, letters?Mulch of concealed bloodshed,tang of dried secrets, tears? Nearer the Cathedraltheir boughs proffer sanctuary,verdant in prayer
Fallen Angels
— Julia D. McGuinness 2015
You look startled with your set lips,brows frozen over apple cheeks.Are you shocked to find yourselves here,eight disembodied spirits, stationed in pairsaround a giant carriage clockon the mantelpiece of Eastgate Wall? Wrought iron and sandstone is a drop downfrom heaven’s crystal halls and the swordsof fire you held at Eden’s gates.Now all you guard is the Diamond dateof an earthly Empress’ reign; in a fortress cityat peace, you chaperone time for all comers. Do you brim with anger, crammedinto corners, your heads held rigid,sprouting sky-blue wings for ears?You could not hear nor stop the thieveswho came to steal the only hands in sighton the clock-face, beneath your eyes. Your vanity wings, trimmed with gold,leave you pinioned on a box builtto house a hundredweight of pendulum,aching your brains with the throb of time.Eternal creatures, forced against each secondof the Walls’ passing hours. Your annunciation tamed into decoration,you become extras in a thousand imagesof beaming Japanese or gawky teenagers.Cherubs afloat above iron curls, brick-red roses,you have endured over a century,watching us walk under time’s shadow.
The bookshop · 34 titles
New & noted on the shelf
Open submissions · closes 30 September
Autumn Showcase 2026
Each autumn we publish a curated showcase of new work from poets writing in English – online, in print, and read aloud at the launch. Free to enter, open to all, with selected poets paid for their work.
News & features
All news →Jun 14
homepage features
Poetry Space pamphlet prize to be biennial after two successful years and six pamphlets published.
After running this very successful competition for two years in a row I have made the decision to make this…
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May 24
homepage features
And then she found herself falling by Tina Cole
And then she found herself falling- Poetry Space Pamphlets Prize winner 2025
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May 24
homepage features
Stalin’s Parrot by Isabelle Thompson – new release
Stalin's Parrot – Poetry Space Prize winner 2025, debut category
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Apr 18
featured poets, news and reviews
Poetry pamphlet launch online Thursday 14th May featuring the poets from the 2025 Poetry Prize
Thursday 14th May – we are having an online launch for the pamphlets that received Poetry Space Prize 2025, judged…
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