Dipple writes: "Thatcher comes to me in a coffin, proceeds to re-write my poem begun that morning."
Deceased former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. (photo: unknown)
Pit Closures
18 April 13
|
Pit Closures The wall of my mindis lined with picks stood out against a seam of night. The present is eerie, lamps dead. My room a pit of solidarity from which I write darkly, incubating pictures in my head. Thatcher comes to me in a coffin, proceeds to re-write my poem begun that morning. Taking my clutch of nascent images, she cracks them open one by one. And lays them on the table |
||
| 'the centre piece is a table, massive made of English oak its surface masked by dark red leather except a strip around the rim where the close grain of an oak's slow growth is seen' |
'against the grain the growth is cut and tongues cut out cured, blood darkening on the table under the tongues lay the hides of those who were felled before hands ringed in hollowness' |
|
| Before hands ringed in hollowness I heave the blackened mass to surface now around the rim. Tell Thatcher she may go to the Devil - a poet too has tongue and teeth. And the morning poem returns intact, cuts a new face of Arthur's Britain, which laps at the lake of dark red leather, drawing it into a damask sleeve around the outstretched hand. And the picks gleam |
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
Leni Dipple is a British poet currently living in south west France. Educated at King's College, London where she read Portuguese and Brazilian Studies. Her multi media installation in Luton's Arndale in 2001 was part of the Year of the Artist series. She co-founded Mole Jazz in the 70's with her late husband, Edward Dipple, and Graham Griffiths. A radio programme about the jazz business, and featuring poetry commissioned for the occasion, was broadcast by BBC3 in 2008. Her work has been published in several magazines and by the Priapus Press.
|
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
