a duet with dawn

new poetry inspired by hinterland

light seeks alcoves of shadows between leaves, between my fingers. it arrives soft like mother’s muslin caressing my cheek. soon, the river will sing a duet with dawn in shimmering peach. but here, in this amethyst hour, time is born. where the eyes meet light, something sacred breathes. Saraswati Nagpal

we are nearly half-way through the year, and the winged moon is warming up to open submissions from June 1 for our print issue themed Biophilia. to celebrate this, our EIC Jai-Michelle in collaboration with contributing editors Victoria Spires, Vikki C and Marcelle Newbold is hosting three workshops “SELF AND UNSELF - UNCOVERING BIOPHILIA” beginning May 29 (next week). we warmly invite you to come over to our website to know more and sign up!

our monthly writing competition the winged muse is still open for submissions to May’s ekphrastic prompt - Jenny Lloyd’s artwork “From Dark Seeds”. guidelines are here. we’re gathering submissions till Monday, May 26th and would love to read your work.

summer’s blaze matches the intensity of today’s poetry inspired by Hinterland.

In B. A. O’Connell’s poem, the lovers’ love becomes the fabric of all that grows, and in Jamie Heath’s poem, Catullus experiences “that perpetual night” of distress on seeing his love, Lesbia. Paired with Jenny Lloyd’s beautiful collage art “Cyclamen Persicum”, a flower historically symbolic of love, and juxtaposed, the poems present the contrasts of intense love - the fullness and the emptiness it evokes.

Jenny Lloyd, Cyclamen Persicum

An Original Translation of Catullus 51
Jamie Heath

that man is divine to me - you know how it goes, of course - 
divine or more, if you’ll let me say it, 
who sits and faces (over and over), 
bears witness, hears prayers from you, 

your laughter like honey. my senses are 
lost (oh fuck me, how pathetic); the moment
i see you, lesbia, my strength is sapped, 
[that god steals verse from the poet’s lips.] 

words freeze on my tongue, hidden fever 
soaks down into my limbs, corruption sings in my ears; 
twofold darkness, that perpetual night, falls 
to cloak the suns behind my eyes. 

leisure, idleness - whatever it is, catullus, it leaves you adrift; 
leisure leaves you restless, aimless, too-much-too-fast. 
leisure leaves you a toppled king, his once-blessed city 
abandoned in the dust

and for our last bit of news this week, if you haven’t read EIC Jai Michelle’s special newsletters for paid subscribers, here’s a recent one with her nourishing writing, photography, and a curated submissions recommendation list from Jai Michelle, The Winged Moon contributing editors and myself. we hope it encourages you to try a paid subscription which also includes monthly write-along sessions, and a quarterly book club gathering.

thank you for reading and savouring with us. until next time…

Saraswati and Jai Michelle

read about today’s poets and artist here

B.A. O’Connell lives in Nowhere, TX with their two cats. They love watching morbid podcasts with their mom and spend a good amount of time listening to indie folk on vinyl. They love poetry more than any other genre and are currently working on their MFA at Lindenwood. Find more work on Amazon or through their TikTok account (@hellishrebukesystem). 

Jamie Heath is a student and amateur writer with a particular interest in ancient poetry. They live in the South West of England.

Jenny Lloyd is a collage artist, illustrator and visual designer from the UK. Having lived in various cities across Europe since she graduated with a BA (Hons) Illustration degree from Falmouth School of Art, she has over seventeen years of experience working as both a freelance and full-time illustrator and digital designer. She’s now been living happily in Amsterdam for the last three years, where she takes on freelance design commissions as a branding, graphic and website designer – and social media manager – for small local businesses, as well as creating custom collage pieces for album art and book covers.