|
CHANGING SIDES Poems by John Levett
_________________________________________________________________________________
John Levett was born in 1950 and has worked as a librarian. His poems have received awards and commendations at the Stroud and Cheltenham Literature Festivals and have appeared in a range periodicals including Encounter, The Honest Ulsterman, London Magazine, New Statesman, Outposts and the Times Literary Supplement. He was the recipient of the New Statesman’s Prudence Farmer Award for 1982.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Island
We drift upon the sunlight now, The lake interpreting the prow, Our dripping oars half-raised to meet The island’s turf-hung parapet, And gently moor beneath the tree, Its leaf-cut exclusivity Thrown out in shadow on the warm Untroubled surface like a charm That hides our stiffened, cautious step From water to the thick mud’s lip. Beyond the traces of a fire We pick through debris, skirt desire, Spent sheaths, abandoned underclothes, The beds of smothered bracken, paths That squirm and wriggle into where A clump of bright forsythia Is huddled with its unforced hoard Of beaten, vegetable gold. We choose what happens here, your guess Brutality, mine tenderness, And turning back confirm ourselves Cast off from where the sunlight shelves, A glitter of synthetic tides, Emerged from shadow, changing sides.
_________________________________________________________________________________
CHANGING SIDES Price £7.95 per copy post free (£5.30 post free to Associate Members) Cover illustration: ‘The Philosopher’, wood engraving by Gwen Raverat Publication: 1983 (52 pages laminated paperback)
|