Month: June 2021

Night Life

Illustration © Atlanta Wiggs in International Times, June 2021

Ward 4B

During a heatwave, visitors are 
forbidden beyond the reception desk. 
 
Breathing machines run on batteries
after midnight nurses rush out 
 
on cigarette break. There is 
a sudden drop in humidity         
 
with the scream of a new-born 
dug out of the womb by hand.
 
Outside the hospital, a man walks
between candles like into a forest 
 
delivering flowers to the maternity. 
Alley cats rummage through garbage, 
 
wish him good luck. Staff change shifts
back at depot for deep-cleaning.
 
Summer rainwater washes away 
night traffic blood puddles.

© Maria Stadnicka, June 2021, published in International Times on 26 June 2021.

TU-PLEI / ART EXHIBITION / 20-25 JULY

Image © Antonia Glücksman, Design © Andrew Morrison

While writing Buried Gods Metal Prophets I often looked back at my childhood games and wondered what they meant then, whether time has given them a different meaning or not. It might have. But surely when the Guillemot Press editors worked on the manuscript, there were moments when my siblings’ chasing in the backyard or ‘soldier-soldier’-game felt untouched and sacred. Precious and private.

At first, sacred to me, later just sweet reminders that childhood play and joy are universal experiences. A child’s laughter and falls and bruises and tears have a collective ‘sameness’ yet our experiences give them unique meaning. A bit like different interpretations of what ‘freedom’ and ‘enjoyment’ are all about. A bit like what being human is all about. After all, war and tragedy, love and disappointment, growth, learning, failure and success are human experiences that repeat themselves despite topological or temporal differences.

TU-PLEI is an invitation to engage with the ludic self then to share the experience with others.

TU-PLEI is an art exhibition which brings together drawing, painting, photography, collage, prints, sculpture, installation and montage from artists with a perceptive and individual interpretation on contemporary playfulness.

Artists: Antonia Glücksman, Zoe Heath, Hannah Mathison, Mark Mawer, Andrew Morrison, CF Sherratt, Maria Stadnicka, John Stadnicki.

Alongside the artwork, there will be poetry from Buried Gods Metal Prophets. FREE entry!

‘Buried Gods Metal Prophets’ 2021

Buried Gods Metal Prophets published by the Guillemot Press, edited by Luke Thompson and Sarah Cave and illustrated by Antonia Glücksman is available here.

The exhibition will be open 20-25 July 2021 at Stroud Brewery.

Tree Chopping

Photography: © MStadnicka, MMXIV ‘Late O’

(after Rainer Maria Rilke)


River bank meadows have
all the time in the world.


Their pulse slows to a teardrop 
before any changes in weather. 


It turns to cement, turns to
salt mixed with root clumps,


for winter seeps through layers
of sunset under glass ceiling.


Our tree chopping season grows 
heavy with chalk, a burial site for


the things we once loved that
have fallen and broken in to pieces. 



© Maria Stadnicka, June 2021, Stroud.

Hermit Age

Photograph: ‘Cafe in Sofia’ © JStadnicki

During supper at our usual tavern 

it reeks of furniture polish. At six o’clock 

waiters dust the old piano then serve

wine out of bleached carafes. 

Two past seven. Room temperature 

eighteen Celsius. Twenty-three guests 

order the same main course. 

Those seated by the piano need 

face coverings. They ask for salt 

and spare cutlery. Twenty past seven.

The kitchen door opens 

four times in twelve minutes. 

There is a power cut when guest B 

finishes the lamb chops.

The waiters bring out fire-safe candles. 

Guests A and C reach for matches. 

No-one speaks. 

© Maria Stadnicka June 2021

Excerpt from the sequence Hermit Age.