Poet of the Month

January: Rebecca Lowe (Wales).
February: Jim Gronvold (USA). 
March: Carolyn Mary Kleefeld (USA).
April: Tozan Alkan (Turkey).
May: Byron Beynon (Wales).
June: Michelle Chung (USA). 
July: Jim Gwyn (USA).
August: Jonathan Taylor (England).
September: Beata Poźniak (USA).
October: Maria Taylor (England).
November: Stanley H. Barkan (USA).
December: John Dotson (USA).

January: Maria Mastrioti (Greece).

February: Gayl Teller (USA).
March: Mike Jenkins (Wales).
April: Cassian Maria Spiridon (Romania).
May: Simon Fletcher (England)
June: Sultan Catto (USA)
July: Vojislav Deric (Australia)
August: K. S. Moore (Ireland)
September: Kristine Doll (USA)
October: Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan (USA)
November: Christopher Norris (Wales)
December: Maria Mazziotti Gillan (USA)

2023: Poets featured as Poet of the Month 

January: Samuel Ezra (Wales)
February: Tôpher Mills (Wales)
March: Rob Cullen (Wales)
April: Mandira Ghosh (India)
May: John Greening (England)
June: Rosy Wood-Bevan (Wales)
July: David Hughes (Wales)

2025: Poets featured as Poet of the Month 
January: Annest Gwilym (Wales)
February: Sam Smith (Wales)
March: Dave Lewis (Wales)
April: Scott Elder (France)
May: Angela Kosta (Italy)
June: Abeer Ameer (Wales)
July: Jenny Mitchell (England)
August: Sydney Lea (USA)
September: Richard Collins (USA)
October: Mark Lewis (Wales)
November: Robert Nisbet (Wales)
Clare E. Potter (Wales)

2026: Poets featured as Poet of the Month 
Rhoda Thomas (Wales)
Mike Everley (Wales)
Regina Resta (Italy)
Anna Lewis (England)
Carmella de Keyser (England)
 Mujë Buçpapaj (Albania)
Luis Benitez (Argentina)
David Annwn (England)
David Lloyd (USA)

 

 

      OCTOBER POET OF THE MONTH:
     Bilal Al Masri

Bilal Al Masri (c) 2026 Bilal Al Masri

Bilal Al Masri is a Lebanese poet and writer, born in Tripoli in 1974. He has published several collections of Arabic poetry since 2004, including Crushing His Head with the Stone of Memory (2024), part of the “Ishraqat” series curated by the Syrian poet Adonis. His literary works have been translated into many languages, and his English poetry collection Because of You was published in London by Palewell Press in 2024. His work has also appeared in international literary magazines and cultural platforms.

 

Al Masri received the Best Theatrical Text Award at the Sidi Kacem International Theatre Festival in Morocco in 2015 and the Naji Naaman Literary Prize in 2026. He was shortlisted for the Arab Theatre Authority Award in Sharjah in 2014 and the K. M. Anthru International Literature Prize in 2024. His writing explores memory, love, displacement and the search for meaning, seeking to build bridges between cultures through literature and to affirm poetry as a language of dialogue, humanity and peace.

 

Be Sympathetic 

Be sympathetic to the poor,
speak a word to them
which no-one knows but you,
build houses for them
in between the lines
to stretch their fragile bodies in,
make your words into their bread
and let them re-inspire you to write stories
with neither thirst nor hunger in them.

(c) 2026 Bilal Al Masri

My Mother

Her silence is a boat,
sea is but a drop upon her palm,
that is how I plan to drown
wrapped in her blue sheets,
swaying, to and fro,
until the universe grows old.

How many waves are you, Mother?
Oh, plenty.
Still I ask, and your silence endures.
That is the answer I love.

In every seashell there’s a song –
seagulls are becoming clouds
impossible to separate from sky.
I no longer know what to become
for I have lost my song.

Mother
I dangle from the swing of your silence.
I teach my children
how to handle water
without injuring the waves.

(c) 2026 Bilal Al Masri

Please Be Cherishing

Be warm to all war-orphaned children.
In a war, don’t leave them
permanently orphaned.
Fashion pairs of wings
for those who lost their limbs...

Don’t ever wave goodbye to them
but smile and let your smile follow them
wherever they may go.

(c) 2026 Bilal Al Masri


I love you

All your languages, I can understand.
All your complexions resemble mine.
I don’t hate you.

Each creature has a beating heart.
We’re at the heart of Life
bearing love’s pulse within,
both I and you.

Does your advanced science
make you think yourself superior?
If so, you drink of foolishness.

Beware of being certain
you are right. Remember,
if love’s light leaves your heart
you will be bound for Hell.

Once there, do something to survive,
become acquainted with terror,
and keep moving forwards
towards peace without barriers.

Call greetings to the wild dogs.
Don’t hit them with a stick.
as that is what they want –
to make you be like them,
a merciless monster.

(c) 2026 Bilal Al Masri


The Ring

When a ring fell into the water
a Genie of the lake appeared
trapping the poet with her spell.

She had the water make
bracelet-fetters for the poet’s hands
so that he grew willing
and happy to surrender.

Seeing swans embrace,
the poet desired their wings.
The Genie fashioned wings for him
but left him crippled.

(c) 2026 Bilal Al Masri

Maturity

Swear words bear fruit
ripening in my head.
My heart rises
as high as yeasty bread
while my limbs dissolve
in an acid-bath of doubt.

Has smoke become my home
or will I choke on it?
Am I swallowing bulldozers
or using them to pave a road?
While this fire gasps,
long-awaited cold awakens
and the peace
for which I waited ages
unravels in my hands.

(c) 2026 Bilal Al Masri

The Treasure

How can I be sure
that language is the treasure
in the hinterland of the soul?

I doubt that balconies –
which dangle from buildings
like the earrings of women –
are the entire city!
Rather the body is the original place
where Time was born.

Sometimes I feel the Earth
is a morsel in the mouth
of the universe –
this predatory being
expanding endlessly,

like paradise is
a search for pure nihilism,
yet that discovery
brings no new knowledge,
just hell growing out of questions.

(c) 2026 Bilal Al Masri

Sparrow

Oh, little Sparrow
flapping with your wings,
may my heart fly with you.
Let it beat with you.

Take from me what you need
of grain and grasses.
Hold heaven in your beak
and hang it from branches.

Many green leaves await,
many leaves fly and fly.
Oh, little bird,
teach me to be
as light as leaves. 

(c) 2026 Bilal Al Masri

Acknowledgements:

The above poems are from
BECAUSE OF YOU
SELECTED POEMS BY BILAL AL MASRI 

Translated from the Arabic by Dr Anba Jawi MBE
and Dr Mohamad HajMohamad

Published by www.palewellpress.co.uk