The Celestial Press

The Celestial Press We are a secular press in Aotearoa New Zealand. Submissions in English from anyone in the world are welcome.

The Celestial Press [established 2020] is devoted to the best. Moreover (and we shall be fully old-fashioned in this respect), we are devoted to the very notion of the best, where it is understood that “the best” is that extreme of good quality EVERY human ought to have available to them.

27/10/2025

POSTCARD

In a textured life, a quilted one if you like, the placement of colour is as important to the work as is the structure. We live in a time of unimaginable structurelessness; the safety of black and white is impossible in an age of brilliant imaging - it becomes an aesthetic release, not a dedication to actuality. Student of war that I am, I nevertheless heaved when I heard that there is an estimated 70,000 unexploded pieces of ordnance in Gaza out of a total of 200,000, delivered. This awfully high percentage (which constitutes lethal hazard for a returned population) is daunting to them who are tasked with managing the preservation of life and limb. The peace of our world, if any can come, is never the turning of a simple page. An unexploded bomb, taking a child's hand or head, blows the page back every time.

CFH 27.10.25

22/10/2025

C F HOOD

Graeme

Our signs were coy once.
On the mailbox.
Made with style
to seem as if
our old and
fuddy duddy selves
had come early -
when we were young and funny.
You and I were always
spare with one another.
Later. Much later
we added a parcels slot;
for the world
that came in books,
to the right of letters!
It was magical in summer.
That evening
you took a photo,
do you remember?
And suddenly I could see
through the slot
to where the trees
swayed in a foreign breeze.
A forest that belonged
to the undiscovered country.
The Celestial Press
is printed there
you said,
in a single run of time
imaginary or divine
that sent a smile
to my voicing heart:
inky you, inky me,
eternally.

Craig Hood 2022
[from THE JOCKEY BOYS]

24/09/2025

MARWAN BEOFUS

Moat

Take notice of the cries -
these are not for happy skies.
Our kindred are buried
beneath the concrete shrouds,
the red of their dead
unseen beneath the rubble.

I am tired
and sore.
My mind is young and unready
for lesions on lesions.
There are sores
that no child can heal.
Why is the animal
the animal in us,
the human animal,
so tall and true when it
comes to hurt?

Call the names out loud.
Nothing happens.
No one comes.
The roll is read
until the matches are lit.
Burn them.
I hear this voice,
Burn them.

No redeemer is near
but the ward releases itself.
The mad break out; the sane break in.
The dead stay dead.
Asylum is the hill
we see across the river.
Beckon us but no carry?
The river is too deep.

MARWAN BEOFUS 2025

02/09/2025

C F HOOD

The Duty

Nights,
yes I work nights:
I sift the reports for germs,
these days,
for the morning.
They sit with me
beside my bed
and take the rest
I need.
These ghouls, you see them?
I have no way of knowing
whether orders of mine
killed them or not.
Do you not find yourself
mimicking their sick grins,
those two or three who kept their faces?
A shadow play, really – curtain-raiser to the
sulphuric something,
crumpling and scratching beneath the duvet.
Something with horns that can't get out.
How these ghosts must fester with pride
as I plan the new intake for tomorrow.
And then, tomorrow:
that hot, scowling holiday
and school's out for ever.
The crashing and the tunes begin,
one band after another,
suddenly in formation;
loiterers and clowns,
caught between the troops;
and hundreds of wide-eyed townspeople
in regiments of rhythm.
Soon they trumpet and tuba past,
and I see their punching beats
as if they were springs of colour:
lilac springs, inviting me
to leap from the balcony,
dear friends in the violet water.

Craig Hood 2020
[from THE STAFF OFFICER'S DIARY]

13/08/2025

BEN AZIZ

Last Night

Last night,
walking home,
we became
evening shadow.
Shadows.
Yours,
alongside mine.
We stretched long
on the pavement,
in love with the shapes
that wouldn't part.

On and on, we walked
our backs to the sinking sun,
until our shapes melded
into a single darkness.
A breath of wind,
a vagrant cloud,
and now the dawn of night
takes the stage.

Yes, I cry.
Silly you, you beam,
and pass me a tissue.
Tomorrow will come,
and the sun,
let us promise,
will make new shadows.

BEN AZIZ 2025

11/08/2025

ENNIS WILLSON

the recruiting officer

get a number -
dad says I should be
ennis clarion willson
the third.
I prefer the fifth.
he says you are
the major seventh.
importantitis.
sondheim said
lenny bernstein
came down
with a bad case.
we talk about
ourselves a lot
at home. it's like
we're waiting
for the boys
to sign up -
blue
or grey.
dad says
join the
army, son,
and live.
join the army
and live.
who could write
the jingle?

ENNIS WILLSON 2025

04/08/2025

C F HOOD

Night-scented Stock

I am to sow the fragrance
for late evening droves;
my many-planted days,
now a harvest
after dark.
The dawn I knew
has grown to redolent dusk now,
and I hurry to reek the sky
with my universe.
It’s late.
I know.

Craig Hood 2020
[from DUETS FOR THE MODERNS]

10/07/2025

ENNIS WILLSON

greta and the lettuce

I did plant them
and they grew
to be a platter for bunnies.
rabbits live where greta
and him do now.
I am nice
to let my ex gf have some netting.
She says I needed
caging.
her lettuce sure did.
I still love her.
She knows.
I send her amazon stuff
because she's rich and
i'm not.
cd's, cos she doesn't see
the point.
And books on
marriage.

ENNIS WILLSON 2025

09/07/2025

CHRISTA WEIBEL

When I Grow Up

Like mummy?
Her job?
Or daddy,
His job!
Neither.
An original what?
An original human
- my hearing is not what it was -
Child did you say?
“When I grow up
I want to be an original
human maid for a robot?”

Christa Weibel 2025

08/07/2025

ENNIS WILLSON

Pop

oh, I ain't gonna tell you
about my love life.
dad hums that lots
and says it was one of your
first hits. i know you know
barry manilow – he told me.
don't be cross.
oh cool editor dude.
i was the song that came along.
you and dad both knew.
i laugh when you say
bracknell's handbag
because I was found in
a manhattan subway.
he's fading.
dad.
says he needs botox
for the soul
in this republic of nothing
where looks
live to make deals.

ENNIS WILLSON 2025

01/07/2025

LIANNE KARAITIANA

I implore those of us who are
Committed to this cause
To go to the movies and eat our popcorn.
Laugh, love
And dance
Till you're exhausted

Why?

Because this is the life
And the freedom
That we want
For all
Palestinians.
In fact
For the world.
Salted? Butter?

###.

LIANNE KARAITIANA 2025

[Editor's note. We would always publish a poem across a great readership such as India, first. This poem we may not. FB is nervous about the word, "Palestinians". We admire this poem, very much.]

01/07/2025

C F HOOD

Satie

On the bed,
sighs.
Do you want
a walk?
You
not well?
That ear still
bothering you?
All three
things.
Da da da
dah.

Craig Hood 2025
[from WHERE IS MY LABRADOR?]

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Masterton
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