Poem of the week: ‘Aunt Agatha’s Oils’

In the stables at May Cottage

she had always several paintings on the go.

You’d visit on a Saturday, steal in to see, suggested

on her easel, another study, foliage as backdrop, petals

Born Lippy review: honest, funny but not exactly inspiring

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Crimson review: No country for young women

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Meet the Irish master codebreaker you never heard of

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Slip of a Fish review: An impressive portrait of motherhood, loss and mental fragility

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smudged along the bough above his massive blank

untethered eyeless head.

Returning on the Friday it was plain

that she had worked at it all week –

at twelve you saw the hames we make

by making things more true.

Paula Cunningham's books, A Dog called Chance and Heimlich's Manoeuvre, are both from Smith/Doorstop. The latter was shortlisted for the Fenton-Aldeburgh, Seamus Heaney Centre, and Strong Shine First Collection Prizes.