Paul Donnelly
All night long
He is between lives
in this soldiers' town,
in a halfway house
a far cry from Frith Street.
He practises, solo,
when he's allowed
or until the man
in the next room shouts,
turns up the radio.
He remembers, vaguely,
how he got here,
remembers clearly
all-nighters at a place
on Hammersmith Broadway,
The Phoenix, The Regency,
Stockwell, Stoke Newington.
And one night opposite Ornette.
Try as he may
he can't recall a tour bus
on the road to Willisau,
that last time.
Now in this violent town
cradling his alto,
moistening a new, softer reed,
he whispers into it,
squeaking a little.
It's late
but he has all night.
in this soldiers' town,
in a halfway house
a far cry from Frith Street.
He practises, solo,
when he's allowed
or until the man
in the next room shouts,
turns up the radio.
He remembers, vaguely,
how he got here,
remembers clearly
all-nighters at a place
on Hammersmith Broadway,
The Phoenix, The Regency,
Stockwell, Stoke Newington.
And one night opposite Ornette.
Try as he may
he can't recall a tour bus
on the road to Willisau,
that last time.
Now in this violent town
cradling his alto,
moistening a new, softer reed,
he whispers into it,
squeaking a little.
It's late
but he has all night.
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