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morphrog morphs again

morphrog has always been ‘the frog that morphed’. We have tried to keep each issue fresh by keeping things in a state of flux, changing the format regularly, mixing images and poetry, creating synaesthetic content that breaks down formal barriers. Now we are morphing again. Our focus is still on the poetry, but we also welcome short stories, prose poems, audio-visual content, images and anything in between.

As morphrog 22 went to press, the UK announced a third period of ‘lockdown’ in the face of a new variant of the Covid-19 virus. Not a great start to 2021, but a timely reminder that change is a law of nature! Everything — to paraphrase Heraclitus — is in a state of flow. Let’s hope things change for the better as 2021 unfolds.

morphrog 23 includes contributions from Jane Angué, Michael Bartholomew-Biggs, Daniel Bennett, Joseph Eastell, Alexandra Fössinger, Ian Heffernan, Jenny Hockey, Yuan Hongri, Martin Kay, Marian Kilcoyne, Angela Kirby, Manu Mangattu, Guy Martin, Anne-Marie O’Brien, Aaron Rice, Ian C Smith, D J Tyrer and J S Watts, and is live at: http://www.morphrog.com

morphrog is an online journal edited by Jeremy Page and Peter Stewart publishing ‘poetry – and now also prose – in the extreme’. It appears twice a year, in January and July.

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Margaret Wilmot wins Frogmore Prize 2021

Adjudicator Clare Best has awarded this year’s Frogmore Poetry Prize to Margaret Wilmot for her poem ‘The hands’ part’. Margaret was born in Berkeley and attended the University of California. She taught English in the Mediterranean and New York before moving to Sussex in 1978, where she continued to teach. Her poetry has appeared in various British magazines including Acumen, ARTEMIS poetry, The Frogmore Papers, Magma, Oxford Poetry, The Rialto, and The North. Smiths Knoll published a pamphlet in 2013 entitled Sweet Coffee and The High Window published her collection – Man Walking on Water with Tie Askew – in 2019. She is represented in Poetry South East 2021.

The hands’ part by Margaret Wilmot

He puts the chisel down, surveys
the window

emerged out of the wood,
almost a porthole

(he with no home port)

String it, and it might play – no,
not even in his dreams –

he sweeps up chips

makes black tea

sands, for days

One evening rubs a small disc
silken

to wire in that space his eye keeps
slipping through

Runners-up for the Prize were Stephen Keeler (Ullapool) and Mike Barlow (Lancaster). Poems by Mike Barlow (again), K I Colombus, Cróna Gallagher, Marion Hobday, Vanessa Lampert, Nick Pearson and Anne Stewart were shortlisted.

All shortlisted poems will be published in number 98 of The Frogmore Papers (September 2021), available for £5.00 (post free) from The Frogmore Press, 21 Mildmay Road, Lewes BN7 1PJ. Please email frogmorepress@gmail.com for details of how to pay by BACS or PayPal.