THE IMPOSSIBLE JIGSAW
Poems by Stuart Henson

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Stuart Henson received an Eric Gregory Award in 1979. His adaptation ‘The Play of the Silver Sword’ was published in 1982. This is his first full collection of poems.

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The Boarding Houses

O voi che siete in piccioletta barca . . .

Such villas bleach their arc along the strand
Of any small resort where spume and sand
Drew principled Victorians to dare
A white improper leg or take the air,
And somehow still these réchauffé hotels
Preserve within their pastel walls the smells
Of time, a jealous faded dignity,
An aura of restraint and sympathy:
A peacock stuffed and cased moth-eyes the stair;
The plastic flowers are arranged with care.
’Our guests, our regulars, come back each year,
Though some will not return next time I fear.
Some of them say they used to go abroad’.
The seasons’ grains trickle between the boards.
Behind the formal lace breakfast at nine
While on the beach the ski-girls’ wetsuits shine.
Age is the irritant, the pearl desire.
The gulls wheel at the sun, spiral and gyre.
From every room a view of ships that hide
Under the false horizon’s rim; the tide
Lifts half-hour trippers nimble round the head.
The glare is pitted in a sea like lead.

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THE IMPOSSIBLE JIGSAW
Price £7.95 per copy post free (£5.30 post free to Associate Members)
Cover illustration: Detail from a map of the Roman town of Godmanchester and sketch of Roman pipeclay Venus figurine by H. J. M. Green
Publication: MARCH 1985 (61 pages laminated paperback)