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Cleaning
The Gramophone
Beached by the sea road, blowhole
silted with rime, the gramophone
had the weight of a mighty conch, the belly
of a ventriloquist, and a metal gizzard
clean as clockwork. A pinch of felt
on the rusty damper, a touch
of Barkeeper’s Friend on the old fanfare;
at first, its tongue was slow as treacle.
The tarnished horn, a sunburnt
bellflower, swallowed fists whole.
From that golden gullet I fished out
a salty phrase, a whole new alphabet,
a cup full of yesterday's quickstep.
Seventy eight revolutions passed by
bloodless and black; the needle
proboscis sucked at the shellac, at last releasing
the sound of your long ago dead man singing.
Andrea Samuelson
– 1st Prize, £1,500
‘For
three decades and more, Harry Chambers, the Publishing Director
of Peterloo Poets, has been one of the great "hearers
and hearteners" of the work being done in British and
Irish poetry. Peterloo Poets, which celebrates its 30th anniversary
in 2006, is a publishing house that has earned the trust of
readers and writers alike; it has managed to keep the art
in touch with its traditions and alive to its possibilities.'
Seamus Heaney
‘Peterloo
Poets is a small publishing house run by Harry Chambers
in Cornwall. Its books are sensitively designed; each has
a striking illustrated cover and the typography is excellent.
The quality of production is much better than the usual standard
of poetry paperbacks issued by major publishers.'
G.B.H. Wightman / British Book News
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