Labyrinth
From the shore, he climbed towards
the undefended city; its courtyard,
a calm eye of space, hubbed
intricate corridors, dolphin-whorled
rooms: bull-dancers leapt, somersaulted
wide horns, their quick and sun-flicked
flesh creating myth: half-man, half-beast.
Then, in the caves of Gortyna, he wooed
the puzzle's mistress: wound, in throb
of blood, stench of bellowed breath,
that narrow darkness: touched the unknown
to pounding hooves until, his lover's
skein recoiled, he stood in olive trees,
smelt wild thyme above a polished sea.
And Ariadne became Helen, bound by seven
walls. Cavalry wheeled to legend in the Game
of Troy, interlaced in swiftly-galloped
circles. Shepherds traced the pattern, cut
turf in complex spirals, etched a plan
on different hills: Caerdroia, fabled
fortress, beneath rain-scudded skies.
Annwn concealed within a terraced tor ,
its steep sides threaded back and forth,
encircled by a path in seven rings.
And Helen here perhaps was Guinevere,
swirled high above the silvered marsh
where ancient wind still whispers
through an archangel's braced wings.
Filed dancers on a ritual floor
or ribbon-weavers, plaiting warp and weft.
Symbol of soul-journey, the seasons'
measure. In avenues of boulders,
fishermen reeled a talisman: palms
pressed against pocked stone, they dreamt
of nets that burst with showered scales.
A secret sign, inscrutable, embroidered
with the Knot of Solomon; flagged
in the Golden Numbered nave of Chartres.
Pilgrims turned its penitential
pavement, knees grazed on cold
cathedral floors: Jerusalem's Road
pooled in blue and red and gold.
Wrought in tight plantings of herb
and gillyflower, a jest of Mizmaze,
hedged gardens, Julian's Bower: and now
my children laugh, against a rock-thrown
spray, make shapes with curled, bare
toes, imprint these shifting sands
round and round upon the shore.
Page(s) 37
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