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Poetry Archive Now Wordview 2025: Short Let, Topsfield Parade, North London
by Martyn Crucefix
Poetry Archive Now Wordview 2025: Short Let, Topsfield Parade, North London
Up from behind the kebab shop bins,
the grey wings surprise me, a puff of air
across my cheek, a handclap of noise
close to my ear, only really rising
to consciousness a few doors on,
passing Fight for Sight, then the door
to the flat above Gail’s Bakery,
where a couple I used to know well
lived for a year and had a daughter
after they’d moved to a bigger place,
in the ascendent, then not at all;
she found he’d played away from home,
so they split, squabbling over the girl,
the mother falling ill—though what it was
I never knew—she suddenly appeared
in a wheelchair, with a terrible slur
in her speech, then I heard she’d died
before I’d found any right-thinking
response to her smiling up at me once,
saying what a joy it was to have heard
a blackbird in the flowering magnolia
A special thank you to our WordView 2025 poets.
Hear from some our winners this year on what the Archive and winning has meant to them:
"I feel deeply grateful to be taking part in the chorus of voices honoured by PAN Worldwide 2025. Leonard Cohen famously sang that “every heart to love will come, but like a refugee.” For me, the same might be said of poetry. I came to the writing of it late, and thank The Poetry Archive for providing the encouragement to continue being brave in sharing it." - Michelle Robin Visser.
"I think it shows the importance of live spoken word to share poetry as equally as the printed word for some audiences." - Steve Harrison.
"Being part of the PAN Worldwide 2025 collection alongside 17 incredible poets from across the globe is both an honour and a reminder of the unifying power of poetry. Moving forward, I think this experience will stay with me, it has encouraged me to continue writing with honesty and openness, and to remember that my voice is part of something much larger than myself." - Panya Banjoko.
See the collectionWatch the full Wordview 2025 playlist