James Byrne
Making the Cut
You can believe what you want,
but his fighting talk was not cocky
as thunder. Sure, I’ve seen the photos,
where you always stood slightly apart:
him giving you a sideways glance
as if preoccupied by some kind
of narcosis. But think it over –
so much dust has settled now;
even your black-and-whites curl
at the edges. My take on it is this:
he’s pretty much where you left him –
staring at his own sombre shadow
on the canvas of a seawall. Grappling
(for good or otherwise) with everything
that we too will consume before
the inevitable blank. When moving on
is unpronounced: when we just do.
but his fighting talk was not cocky
as thunder. Sure, I’ve seen the photos,
where you always stood slightly apart:
him giving you a sideways glance
as if preoccupied by some kind
of narcosis. But think it over –
so much dust has settled now;
even your black-and-whites curl
at the edges. My take on it is this:
he’s pretty much where you left him –
staring at his own sombre shadow
on the canvas of a seawall. Grappling
(for good or otherwise) with everything
that we too will consume before
the inevitable blank. When moving on
is unpronounced: when we just do.
James Byrne's first collection, Passages of Time (Waterways), was published in 2003. He founded New Blood, a popular monthly event at Covent Garden's Poetry Café, and he is co-editor of The Wolf poetry magazine.
Page(s) 9
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The