“and there is a swarm of objects that call without being answered, and a ceaseless movement, and a bewildered man.” . (Pablo Neruda) Watching a hand trail the worn pattern of embroidered leaves on a threadbare sheet: A hand, softly trembling – its surface, cold and cratered like a careless moon, barely containing [...]
“Give me in its parcel of hours a slippery, silken forgettable day.” . (Moniza Alvi) You stiffen. Then you sigh. Nothing’s moving now, not for the longest time. It is so quiet that I almost hear your blood slow down and settle to a quiet humming. The low, crazed buzzing of a bluebottle reminds me [...]
(Collage by Suzi Dennis) “And ungraspable multitudes swarm, come together in the crinkles of tree bark, in the telescope’s eye,” . (Czeslaw Milosz) What veil is lifted when we first see love, not as a gift – or worse: A prize but as a play of light, catching or caught on the wings of a [...]
“while below, the foghorns bend to their work, bringing home what is coming home, blessing what goes.” . (Jane Hirshfield) I can remember that I read to you. November, it was – in Prague, of course. You were sitting in that chair with the Communist upholstery, that creaked each time you moved [...]
“We could never really say what it is like, this hour of drinking wine together” . (Sharon Olds) You never knelt before me, drying my feet with your hair but then I never claimed to be a Saviour. The water that we drank may have been wine but how [...]
There are no footsteps. No one will come. . (Kate Rhodes.) Before, I was afraid of everything that might be hidden in the dark. I always feared I’d stumble upon truth: Something the night would fail to hide – a pattern that might half reveal the distance measured between breaths, between the [...]
“and anger is no more than some old clock ringing to itself in ancient ruins” . (Selima Hill) I did not set out to be saved or kept inside the prison of your arms, the stern appraisal of your mind. If I am guilty, I am so because I dared to dream that you would [...]