Alf Bishop
Burning Words
I come to a wasteland,
kick rubbish together
and put a match to it.
Toss on leaves, grass,
a skull, stone, bones,
eyes, hands and heart.
Throw on life, death,
light, dark, silence.
Roll-in the sun, moon,
spin-in several stars.
Now blood, water, dust,
blue colour and dreams
are added to the flames.
Over my shoulder goes,
with anger and regret,
paperback selected works
of Auden, Eliot, Larkin.
I chuck in my first love,
a relative’s funeral
and my own childhood.
Finally, saving the best
for last, the White Goddess
is flung on top.
I stand back and watch
this blaze of clichés.
All these tired, used
and popular poeticisms
crack, bang, pop, burn.
But when the fire fades
a few survive the ashes.
Page(s) 26
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