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Literature, PoetryApril 20, 2017

Note from Orchestra

Artwork by Syed A Irfan. Image courtesy of the artist

I passed a boy with a cloud of smoke
where his head ought to be:
a cigarette fume Magritte.

I’ve spent half the evening not understanding
stories, instructions, extended jokes,
the other half playing

Valse des Fleurs over and over,
re-moulding my fingers
into C-string-shaped trenches.

Not that the note’s called C here,
but Do. Like the deer.
It’s not a difficult part,

but the fast sections
keep tripping me up.
I know they think I’m slow.

They kept going when we passed him,
I couldn’t ask them to wait,
but there was something worth seeing

through the mist that wouldn’t clear –
a boy, a word,
a note, a deer.

~ Helen Bowell

Helen Bowell is a poetry editor at The Cadaverine magazine, and a member of the Dead Women Poets Society team. In 2011 and 2012, she was a commended Foyle Young Poet, and as an intern at the Poetry Society helped to organise Foyle 2016. Helen is a graduate of both a Durham English Literature degree and the north-based Writing Squad.

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Helen BowellPoem of the WeekpoetrySyed A Irfan

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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 [email protected].

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

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