‘Atmosphere’ by Colin Bancroft

Colin is not only a wonderful poet but also a champion of other poets, both established and emerging. Colin runs Poets Directory who you can find on Twitter, Facebook and their website.

As well as showcasing poets and their work, Poets Directory also maintain and share a list of magazines and publishers available to submit your work to, an invaluable tool for anyone wishing to send their work out into the world. They also have an ezine called 192 magazine, in which I was fortunate to have one of my poems published. I think the magazine may be on a short hiatus (which is no surprise considering the numerous projects they are involved with), however, check out their previous issues and keep and eye for any upcoming calls for submissions.

Colin is also editor with Nine Pens Press, who have published a host of pamphlets and, most recently, anthologies. You can check out their published works here.

The poem I am sharing is from Colin’s pamphlet, Impermanence (2020) published by Maytree Press (available here) and Colin also has a new pamphlet, Knife Edge coming out later this month published by Broken Sleep Books.

Atmosphere

I suppose if I were to compare it to anything
It would be snow. That moment of wonder
When you open the curtains on a morning
And find that the whole world is under
New conditions. Everything unwritten
And laid out with a brilliant innocence,
Every unsightly blemish neatly hidden
Beneath a moment that seems to be synchronous
With happiness. But it never lasts, as we know,
And soon it starts to melt down to slush:
The old dark world rising up from below
To lock us back into its inescapable crush.

(From Impermanence (2020) by Colin Bancroft published by Maytree Press)

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