A lark starting from the heather; a lamb
amazed by a heron; a hare gutted
at a turn in the road; the familiar path
obscured by fern, bramble, convolvulus:
the gallery in my head is open
all hours – by turns, thriving and derelict.
The sparrow in my chest, where my heart lay,
now flings itself at broken panes, now stills.
At the end of the pier, where steamships docked,
black-headed gulls and anglers watch and wait.
The steel-faced laughing man will read our stars.
Under the planking, the jelly fish glide.
My heart is a fist clenched in darkness,
a sea-anemone in coral waters.
#1 by Kevin Dyer - July 1st, 2009 at 11:24
I love ‘We Prisoners’ especially. It seems daft to say to a poet why his poems ‘work’. Suffice it to say that this one does for me, surprisingly and deeply so. Thank you. Kevin Dyer.