Elizabeth Bewick
A Driftwood Cross
(for Kay Cotton)
A piece of driftwood carved into a cross,
the marks of nails and spear already gouged
and depth of colour running red as blood.
Initial skilful cutting with a knife,
long hours of sanding, patience, love and pain
all these embodied, wrought into the wood;
promise of resurrection clearly seen,
cut in the surface flowers of love and hope
that grow with contemplation of the rood.
I hold it in my hand and draw such strength
from feeling the close texture of the grain,
the hardness and the faithfulness of wood.
Strong tides are running still within its heart,
the timelessness and turbulence of sea
reflecting human nature's every mood;
my own dark moods of bitterness and doubt,
not knowing if I'd ever walk again,
held deep within the promise of the wood.
the marks of nails and spear already gouged
and depth of colour running red as blood.
Initial skilful cutting with a knife,
long hours of sanding, patience, love and pain
all these embodied, wrought into the wood;
promise of resurrection clearly seen,
cut in the surface flowers of love and hope
that grow with contemplation of the rood.
I hold it in my hand and draw such strength
from feeling the close texture of the grain,
the hardness and the faithfulness of wood.
Strong tides are running still within its heart,
the timelessness and turbulence of sea
reflecting human nature's every mood;
my own dark moods of bitterness and doubt,
not knowing if I'd ever walk again,
held deep within the promise of the wood.
Page(s) 19
magazine list
- Features
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- 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