Claire Crowther
Magma Showcase: Claire Crowther
Grace Before Supper
Thanks for the brass crucifix
high on a dark purple pillar,
for the expanse of marble floor,
black and white, for blood-red plastic
armchairs, yellow tablecloths,
Torino tablemats, La Nonna
chewing her empty mouth, thickening
bleached hair against the mirrored
drinks shelves, for the reminder
not to serve ourselves, for the waitress
who takes our order for cioccolata
and te e camomile even
at this late hour, for the emptiness
of most tables, for silent eaters
texting with delicate fingertips,
for the huge ad hanging in
the hall outside, for Aderisci
ai Democratici di Sinistra.
high on a dark purple pillar,
for the expanse of marble floor,
black and white, for blood-red plastic
armchairs, yellow tablecloths,
Torino tablemats, La Nonna
chewing her empty mouth, thickening
bleached hair against the mirrored
drinks shelves, for the reminder
not to serve ourselves, for the waitress
who takes our order for cioccolata
and te e camomile even
at this late hour, for the emptiness
of most tables, for silent eaters
texting with delicate fingertips,
for the huge ad hanging in
the hall outside, for Aderisci
ai Democratici di Sinistra.
Claire Crowther’s poems have been published in a wide variety of British and North American journals including TLS, Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, PN Review and Ambit. Her pamphlet The Glass Harmonica was published by Flarestack Press in 2003, and her first collection is forthcoming from Shearsman Press in March 2007.
Page(s) 38
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