Guest Poem by Antony Mair

Antony Mair lives in Bexhill, East Sussex. He has published three collections of poetry. He was awarded first prize in the 2022 Live Canon International Poetry Competition, and was the Poet in Residence for the Cuckmere Pilgrim Path 2023 – 24, leading to publication of a pamphlet, Behind the Seen. This poem is from Acumen 112.

The Other

It presses against
my consciousness
like a curtain blown
by a wind outside.

No windows free us
from our senses’ prison
and linear time
constricts. But in

that other place
there are no walls;
past, present, future,
stroll together.

I cannot shift
the curtain’s weight,
but something breathes
behind the cloth.