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.

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

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?]

25/06/2025

CHRISTA WEIBEL

Yes, I Am

A trained scientist,
Held so dear by my beloved.
My parents, my siblings.
My village.
Oh, you died for me.
I will not lose the method
Or its means
Without fight and joy.
Both sustained them,
Even, in times of horror.
I know the evidence:
I breathe.
I think,
I fear.
I feel.
I yearn.
I am human.
Yes, I am.

Christa Weibel 2025

25/06/2025

C F HOOD

Aid

Could I smile without you,
ever again?
Will you,
if I am beneath the sheet?
I hope you can
watch someone again,
and eat.
Our dinner hour
became starvation,
when death became their food.
A loaf of bread.
The staff of life.
Care.
We cared.
Die.
We died.
Carry.
We carried
with writing on the shroud.

Craig Hood 2025
[from WHERE IS MY LABRADOR?]

16/06/2025

ENNIS WILLSON

humidity

when the story comes out,
says dad, was what you
used to say to him.
no story is immune
to self infection,
and sepsis can spread.
the lies have become unbearable
in this republic of ours.
he's ill now.
much depressed,
much sicker.
we went to the parade,
and saw the king
behind his proofed screen.
dad is like that.
tanks in the capital.
dad says washington
nearly fell in the civil war.
i didn't know that.
i know this -
we're going to canada
next week for a while.
maybe longer.
a lot longer.

Ennis Willson 2025

09/06/2025

CHRISTA WEIBEL

Sleep

I walked through the park
Yesterday. Lunchtime but empty.
You said you would meet me
At twelve fifteen. You wrote
Twelve fifteen not 12.15
And won my heart.
Now you are dead.

It's twelve fifteen now
And in the distance I see you.
I am asleep?
You are asleep?
We are alive,
In yearning,
And human.

Christa Weibel 2025

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Masterton
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