www.peterloopoets.com

Peterloo Poets, Poetry Publishers, Calstock, Cornwall

The Stone Library
Alyson Hallett

Alyson Hallett was brought up in Street, Somerset, and currently lives in Hartland, Devon. Landscapes and Cityscapes, travel and transition are the core ingredients of her work. Her ongoing project, the migration of stones, involves carrying stones around the world with words carved into them.

‘And love will come,’

And love will come,
never mind this morning’s sun
sifting through leaves to plant itself
in patches on the ground,
never mind the phone ringing,
the steaming cup of tea on the kitchen table –

Your whole life a stable of measured
this and that, the bric-a-brac
of days lived with terror. Love
will come; an evening decked
with stars, cars, this burning lamp
as you undress for bed suddenly shaken
like earth at the point of a fault –

Love will come and you will stand
in this stark moment, half-naked,
a tremble of rakish and ghostly monks
in the corner muttering yes,
it is already written, everything done
must also be undone.