David Selzer

A CHEESE BY ANY OTHER NAME

By David Selzer March 28, 2018 In Poetry 2 Ben Gunn, Cheddar

Marooned for three years, Ben Gunn was

‘sore for Christian diet’. He dreamt of cheese,

toasted mostly.

Doctor Livesey always had about him

a piece of Parmesan in a snuffbox.

When he heard about the dreams he said,

‘Well, that’s for Ben Gunn!’

But we never find out if the ‘half mad maroon’ savours

the King of Cheeses. Maybe he eats it –

and wishes it were Cheddar.

Note: This poem is a slightly revised version of part of REVELATIONS,

IN CAMERA

By David Selzer March 28, 2018 In Poetry 3 'Huis Clos', 'In Camera'

The colour scheme, all of the fittings, even

the rectangular reproduction,

above the bed, of an abstracted landscape

that might be desert or water, sunrise

or dusk reflected in the wardrobe’s mirror

were exact replicas of all those

he had already seen in all the rooms

he had stayed in the centre of cities,

on the edge of towns, at all compass points.

There was always, however, one difference –

the view. Through the sealed, double-glazed window

he could see an empty office block

with one blind still drawn on the sixth floor.

INSPIRATION

By David Selzer March 28, 2018 In Poetry 2 convolvulus, hedgerows

Turning down the steep lane to the strand,

I felt that tightening of the legs and saw

the hedgerows of convolvulus and woodbine

descend serpentine to the wide, empty bay…

…it might be a couple of bars of music,

the way the light falls, a voice in the street,

some words in a book, whatever it might be

it becomes as real, as substantial

as a taste, a smell, a sound, something

that must be made, words that must be written…

THE TAXIDERMY

By David Selzer March 28, 2018 In Poetry 2 Llangollen, taxidermist

In a one storey Gothic-kitsch building

with small steeples – where Abbey Road meets

Mill Street – attached to the Bridge End Hotel,

opposite the pelican crossing,

angled on the corner of Wharf Hill

that leads steeply up to the canal

and, over the narrow, hump-backed bridge,

left to Ysgol Dinas Brân and right

through the sheep fields and onto the hills

there is an eclectic bestiary:

the hare about to box, the barn owl roosting,

the erect meerkat,

‘ANOTHER PLACE’ REVISITED AT LOW WATER

By David Selzer March 28, 2018 In Poetry 2 Another Place, Anthony Gormley

‘It is no hero, no ideal, just the industrially reproduced body

of a middle-aged man trying to remain standing and trying to breathe.’ Anthony Gormley

They are still standing and their slow carapace

of barnacles breathes. Small pools of eaten

razor clams and star fish lie at their feet – fry

dart amongst seaweed fronds and the dead.

An off shore breeze brings the calls of distant

sea birds close. The RNLI flag stiffens

and plastic kites,

VALENTINE WEATHERS

By David Selzer February 22, 2018 In Poetry 2 August, Captain Cook

January is like navigating

ice floes – then eventually heading east

for aromatic landfalls, or west

following the setting sun, or south

for the long haul like some latter day Cook,

journeying without guides into foreign parts.

The first port of call is in February.

Love fills the sails, the swell lifts the bow.

We met one July, married one August.

In May our daughter will be fifty one.

The bow lifts in the swell, the canvas fills with love.

All Posts By David Selzer

David Selzer

A CHEESE BY ANY OTHER NAME

IN CAMERA

INSPIRATION

THE TAXIDERMY

‘ANOTHER PLACE’ REVISITED AT LOW WATER

VALENTINE WEATHERS

David Selzer

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INSPIRATION

'ANOTHER PLACE' REVISITED AT LOW WATER

IN CAMERA

'ANOTHER PLACE' REVISITED AT LOW WATER

THE TAXIDERMY