Andrew Darlington
Positive/Negative
It seems strange that the wind
once fondled your hair across my face,
now tears insane fingers at my clothes.
It seems strange to hear one hand
clapping to mark the passage of hours.
It seems strange that the walls once
enfolding, now reject me coldly.
It seems strange that music once within me
now mocks me from the lamp-shade
(a Da Capo sadly diminished
played on a stringless lyre).
The room you had re-decorated by Constable
(for the duration of your stay)
with serene English countryside
hidden in every fold of the sheet
has been superimposed by a Dali landscape
peopled by blank-faced
purposeless Modigliani figures
huddled about the fire
aflame with burning snow.
The trees felled, as no-one in there to hear,
fall in silence,
while clouds move across the bed
of the lakes.
The eye that sees, now sees only itself
hiding its truth in a Basho haiku.
Stones falling towards the ceiling pass
rivers flowing towards their source.
It seems strange that Enid Blyton is now
written by Strindberg
and Joan of Arc whores on Street corners.
It seems strange that the knife designed to cut
now cuts itself
and my reflection, aimed at the mirror,
misses.
Page(s) 100
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