R. V. Bailey
Conference at the Water Sports Centre
- Trees leaning into a damp gale, weather chill,
Place brisk, open, expecting sunshine,
Gear for summertime sports on sale in the hall,
Delegates alert, committed. Nobody old.
We have backgrounds somewhere: cars, trains are filaments
Leading us to children, gardens, dogs, to colleagues
Who know us in messier clothes, without ties.
It was useful to leave these behind, like papers on desks,
For a landscape constructed by water, to rooms
Where nobody lives, where nobody has made love.
Lonely canoeists and seagulls occur in the window:
This is where sport is work.
The Indian from Glasgow wears a Paisley tie.
He talks about feedback. None is expected from us.
Distant trees on a hill, highrise flats, a washing line
Hint at another world.
Partnerships here are in Validation,
Faculties something we all have, and
A certain level of warmth, not controlled by us.
Useful that life distributes itself like an orange:
Ninety sequestered minutes to learn to control
Courses, colleagues, selves. Time
For coffee, for finding the bar, for professional chat.
A different crowd, another room, a task
To complete before lunch, and then to leave behind.
Wearing ourselves in card on lapels we have vanished.
At the end we will throw ourselves away.
Place brisk, open, expecting sunshine,
Gear for summertime sports on sale in the hall,
Delegates alert, committed. Nobody old.
We have backgrounds somewhere: cars, trains are filaments
Leading us to children, gardens, dogs, to colleagues
Who know us in messier clothes, without ties.
It was useful to leave these behind, like papers on desks,
For a landscape constructed by water, to rooms
Where nobody lives, where nobody has made love.
Lonely canoeists and seagulls occur in the window:
This is where sport is work.
The Indian from Glasgow wears a Paisley tie.
He talks about feedback. None is expected from us.
Distant trees on a hill, highrise flats, a washing line
Hint at another world.
Partnerships here are in Validation,
Faculties something we all have, and
A certain level of warmth, not controlled by us.
Useful that life distributes itself like an orange:
Ninety sequestered minutes to learn to control
Courses, colleagues, selves. Time
For coffee, for finding the bar, for professional chat.
A different crowd, another room, a task
To complete before lunch, and then to leave behind.
Wearing ourselves in card on lapels we have vanished.
At the end we will throw ourselves away.
Page(s) 14
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