The website of writer and poet Daniel Bennett
Very pleased to have my poem 'Clickbait' commended in the National Poetry Competition. You can see a video of me reading it here. Clickbait In the forecourt carparkof the out-of-town hypermarketthe driver of the four-by-fourwith a pair of latex bull testiclesswinging from the tail-barmay as well accept my ireas an inevitable gift. It is Sundaywhich … Continue reading National Poetry Competition 2020
My poem 'The Limit' features in Eyeflash 6. For some reason, I've been credited as D.T. Bennett, which represents a new nom-de-plume... The Limit The secrets you sealinside a house when you work on it. The mirror inthat bedroom, hides six holes drilled in pairswhere I couldn’t gauge the width. After I finished I looked into the face in the … Continue reading Eyeflash Poetry
'The city could not rest. It was destined to move forever, because if it halted it would start the long slow movement down here -- down past-- where it would come, eventually, to the zone where the mountains became ridges a few inches high, where an irresistible pressure would sweep it to its destruction... He … Continue reading Microcosm Of The City
'A man's features, the bone structure and the tissue which covers it, are the product of a biological process; but his face he creates for himself. It is a statement of his habitual emotional attitude; the attitude which his desires need for his fulfilment and which his fears demand for their protection from prying eyes. … Continue reading A Devil Mask
I've been a huge admirer of Robert Selby's Wild Court magazine for a while, so it's a great moment for me to have three poems featured here. Here's an excerpt from one of them, 'Two Days In The Valley': my paean to a minor nineties film and an out-of-town multiplex. Two Days in the Valley … Continue reading Wild Court
I have three poems in the latest issue of The High Window. Here's an excerpt from one of those poems, 'The Tenants', about rootlessness and our attempts to make a life for ourselves. The Tenants They offered us vine leaves and red wineand we approved of their gestureinside the English gardenthey would never share. We … Continue reading The High Window (Autumn)
My poem, 'The Panda', has been published in London Grip's Autumn issue. The sounds of the house begin above him,a family waking. He thinks of Stalin preferring a sofa to a presidential bed, of the ace of pentacles gleaming from the apocrypha of a bookshelf of the bottle of Cahors he drank last night,a black wine, dark as a … Continue reading London Grip Autumn 2020
Very pleased to have a new story 'Captured Dreams of the Dead Machine' in the September issue of Interzone. The story follows a dealer in bootleg information and his encounters in the badlands outside his home city. 'Traffic around the freeport snarled up his journey, but Ash cut down by the skud site near the … Continue reading Interzone 288
Billy watched Manny hurry across the road with a jerking, awkward movement of his cane, finally slowing down and stalking his way back to the barber shop on Coldharbour Lane. Manny turned and he waved again, a strong, sprawling gesture of benevolence and warmth. Billy huddled in his coat as he walked back to Stockwell … Continue reading Who Wants Sweetness?
The artwork for my story in the forthcoming Interzone 288.
