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the poet
Katrina Moinet is published in Raw Lit, Black Iris, Poetry X Hunger, Poetry Wales, Ffosfforws and Barddas. Their debut pamphlet, Portrait of a Young Girl Falling, was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year. She followed this with her award-winning pamphlet The Art of Silence. Longlisted in The Poetry Society's National Poetry Competition 2024, Katrina's also been nominated for Best of the Net and The Pushcart Prize. She got her creative writing MA from Bangor University, hosts monthly poetry open mic Versify, and enjoys surfing. Katrina's latest pamphlet is State of the Nations.
the poems
Elemental | Elémentaire
Tell me all the ways you’ll conquer me
a gentle chuchotement à l’oreille
a ramrod battement between my enjambe-
ment sweet châtiment ça chatouille bare skin
fingertip frissons tiptoe to seduce
la nuque, misuse your langue civilisée
to recite a malaise of easy beats
to slipknot bind me à l’horizontale
I’ll tell you the way I’ll conquer you
as hawthorn borne over by prevailing winds
as loosened dune concedes to groundswell flood
as a flame-scorched page disintegrates to
nothing
but love, relentless love
Kuss mit der Faust
After Klimt
There’s something quite unheimlich about your
tightened lids & tilted moon face, toes curled
to grip dear ground; your solid bound to his
expression – glued, in semi-serene dream.
Something gefährlich about his stiffened
finger clasp, fists grasping at oval bone
no shimmer space between your split shapes
your swirls boldly blocked by black, silver, gold.
That etwas unnatürlich which endures:
a portrait posture held in clutched embrace
disguised trace facial clues, a light signal
surface tripwires – never step out of frame.
This century’s sinnliche Masse adores
a brow of smooth acquiescence, gentle
wilting gesture conceals tender splendour
knelt low, as nature’s gift slips to the abyss.
An ekphrastic response to Gustav Klimt’s painting ‘Der Kuss’; title references Florence + The Machine’s ‘Kiss with a Fist’ from the 2009 album Lungs.
The cost of living
I suffered a panic attack today: my shopping bag felt light-headed my milk turned
my eggs shrank back from the sides of their cardboard nests and had a wobble
I've tried to never watch the news, never keep abreast of what government
think-tanks think or whose stroke of genius is making headlines spin and yet
I couldn't help but notice the cost of living-breathing-eating-heating rise
I couldn't help but notice the pound slip between the stitched seam of my pocket
A lady over the phone checks my state of consciousness asks me
if I'm having difficulty breathing?
I'd hardly noticed lately
I've been breathing less (more shallowly)
living less (more shallowly)
loving less (more shallowly)
And yes I'm having difficulties
yes it's left me breathless
The lady on the phone advises me: 'Take deeper breaths'
but I can't find my words to explain
I can't afford to take deeper breaths
I can't afford to phone a friend
I can't afford to use a lifeline
can't afford to survive
so I breathe less
& less
& less
& less
& less
Publishing credits
Elemental | Elémentaire: Firmament (Vol. 2, No. 4) – appearing originally
as Sonnet | un sonnet in a trio of poems titled Growing Pains
Kuss mit der Faust: Poems for Gustav Klimt (The Hedgehog Poetry Press)
The cost of living: Mslexia (Issue 98)