Janet Fisher
Economy Of Style
Squinting she hand sets each mirrored letter,
tightens the quoins, oils the moving parts:
the rubber rollers slip for a fortnight.
Ink spreads like slander, postmarks her forehead
as fingers push back sweat and hair.
She collects remnants of beautiful paper
torn from fly-leaves, found under the counter,
deckled with mould. She heaves and wrenches
the treadle press, her books struggle for air,
each page an achievement, the wooden benches
littered with smudged uneven discards.
Could be worth something in a few years.
But she already knows the value of words:
she cannot sell them for what they cost her.
tightens the quoins, oils the moving parts:
the rubber rollers slip for a fortnight.
Ink spreads like slander, postmarks her forehead
as fingers push back sweat and hair.
She collects remnants of beautiful paper
torn from fly-leaves, found under the counter,
deckled with mould. She heaves and wrenches
the treadle press, her books struggle for air,
each page an achievement, the wooden benches
littered with smudged uneven discards.
Could be worth something in a few years.
But she already knows the value of words:
she cannot sell them for what they cost her.
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The