Guest Poem by Charles Bennett

Charles Bennett was tutored by Seamus Heaney and Joseph Brodsky whist on a scholarship from London University. After completing a PhD, he initiated Ledbury Poetry Festival, then led Creative Writing at the University of Northampton as Associate Professor. For twenty years he has collaborated with composer Bob Chilcott. The most recent of his books is Cloud River (Cinnamon, 2019) set in the landscape of the Cambridgeshire fens.

Robin

I realise now what I wanted
   when I whistled in a botched echo
as if to say ‘sorry’ for all the harm

humankind has wrought,
   was a recognition of sorts
a sign I was known and familiar.

When I said in my cackhanded way
   Shall we be friends, you and I?
I was asking the robin to forgive me.