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Literature, PoetryApril 29, 2014

Raptures

Artwork by Irfan Gull. Courtesy: ArtChowk Gallery.

Artwork by Irfan Gull. Courtesy: ArtChowk Gallery.

‘Conies’, whispers Wisdom Smith, ‘require calm,
dawn craft and a down-wind’. ‘While my riming’,
murmurs John Clare, ‘obliges a simpler psalm:
I cannot sing for my breakfast when ravening’.
Both men flex their full shanks before kneeling.
They paw the grass aside, then slide askew
like stoats slinking sidelong toward their prey
before the wide mouths of the warren’s holes.
Rabbits rebound from a moor russet with molehills.
Bucks bite, dash, stamp, scrabble and scuffle.
Kittens suckle under dozing, sun-stunned does.
‘As if Heaven fell and Hell surfaced on the same acre’,
whistles the Gypsy, raising the rifle sight to his gaze
while chewing softly on the stalk of a wildflower.

~ David Morley

David Morley is a leading British poet, critic and ecologist. His latest collection of poems, ‘The Gypsy and the Poet’ (Carcanet, 2013), was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. His selected poems are due to be published by Carcanet in 2015. In 1996, he founded the Warwick Writing Programme with Jeremy Treglown, and he is currently Head of the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick.

Editor’s Note: ‘Raptures’ appears in the Wenlock Poetry Festival 2014 anthology, and appears here with kind permission from the poet and the publisher.

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David MorleyIrfan GullPoem of the WeekpoetryWenlock Poetry Festival 2014

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One last love letter...

April 24, 2021

It has taken us some time and patience to come to this decision. TMS would not have seen the success that it did without our readers and the tireless team that ran the magazine for the better part of eight years.

But… all good things must come to an end, especially when we look at the ever-expanding art and literary landscape in Pakistan, the country of the magazine’s birth.

We are amazed and proud of what the next generation of creators are working with, the themes they are featuring, and their inclusivity in the diversity of voices they are publishing. When TMS began, this was the world we envisioned…

Though the magazine has closed and our submissions shuttered, this website will remain open for the foreseeable future as an archive of the great work we published and the astounding collection of diverse voices we were privileged to feature.

If, however, someone is interested in picking up the baton, please email Maryam Piracha, the editor, at maryamp@themissingslate.com.

Farewell, fam! It’s been quite a ride.

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