Guest Poems

on good days I believe a thousandCalifornia condorswill fly headlonginto the futurenot looking back believe the coloursof a paint-box skyaren’t pollutionbut light scatteringthe way it’s meant to on good days I thinkwe’re doing our bestor at least our bit ‒not...

Kay The river is playing at land again. She used to say that, standing onthe floodbank by the sudden lake,her feet gloved by the water. She was always remembering things. How our mother wore her headscarflike a bandage, drew her bike around her like an arm;watched out...

Running Late My father stands with his back to the firetrying to keep our spirits upin the waiting-room, speaking of trainsand life getting better for all of us.We study brazen, purple flames,listen for a piston pulse,picture a single pinpoint of lighton the front of...

Morning Swim, Saint Malo The water is never as cold as it looks.If you think too much about the cold,you’ll miss the chance to let it slapyour skin, push your body back and forth,be legs, arms and chest in it – and eyes –yes eyes – to see the expansiveness of sea,sky,...

Robin I realise now what I wanted   when I whistled in a botched echoas if to say ‘sorry’ for all the harm humankind has wrought,   was a recognition of sortsa sign I was known and familiar. When I said in my cackhanded...

Your Call Is Important to Us Dust in a sunbeamSlanted across the naveIs all that remains of thoseWho prayed here once. Did they get an answer?Or did they meet with the sameSilence the visitor does today,One older than God himself? No matter. They are at peaceNow,...

Granada I recall it life-sized, to my left, beside the altar:Isabella’s royal foot treads on an Arab neck,triumph of Los Reyes Catolicos.The man’s eyes howling. That was the week of Abu Ghraib. A tv in my roomshowed the US soldier’s equal triumph,trampling her...

Nothing Happens I sit in the darkness of the stallsawaiting a momentous eventthat never occurs, as if the actiontook place in the green room;the actors emerged exhaustedby the effort of dressing and makeup,too tired to propel the plot. I sharethe idlers’ ennui as they...

Grocery Store Tulips Bought on a whim, pale petals shutlike seashells slow to open, waiting to soakin the weak light that streaks through the window. My cat unbothered, too old to be curious, the tipof her tail a calligraphy brush dipped in ink.I serve her daily meds,...

Green We head for the green-shotin its glass syringe. You’ll find a flood of cloudsdebating earth fall. From their great heightour garden is one rainbow flower. They debate which of our bushes will receivetheir blessing and which to leave. And when we come home, our...

Whale Watching This seascape, with its deep shades of ultramarine,bluer than Muddy Waters, is as uncannyas the landscape we are leaving behind, chuggingout of Reykjavik in high summer with our talkof that Great American Novel, Ahab and his quest,so much madder than...

Unpacking a Bomb Articles for the Blind    wrapped securely as a bomblike Dad     impossible to open                Dad’s…    his presentscontaining surprise practical mug:    King Charles...

That Tremendous Fish after Elizabeth Bishop So, I let the fish go, but it did not swim away,remaining instead port-side of the hired boat,right eye staring unblinking into my startled gaze. I raised the revs on the motor but it stalked me.The bows pushed harder...

Du Lac My lover was born under a wet star.He is not my first, but he is my favourite.The waters of the lake hold the shape of my body in their silt.I found him at the water’s edge,blurring into the shallows like a mirage.His hands slid over my shouldersand droplets...

Last Inhabitant Left on Earth Give me one place only –one area the size of Americatoo large to fathom where I willmake myself known asking formore space a fortress where tobuild upon and declaring myselfto you without animosity. What’s left on earth notlooking...