Anne Ryland
The Mark of Sarah Wright
She left behind a trail of crosses on paper;
first her marriage to Andrew, a labourer,
in 1842, then eleven children
from Ann to Charles, who both deserted her,
and in between, Bessie of many troubles,
Ellen, William and Thomas, who died
not long after birth. The surprise
is that at eighty she was still alive,
her husband beside her, sons and daughters
coming and going, in-laws and lodgers –
her hands were grooved
with all the stories anyone could survive.
What advice would Sarah offer
her great-great-granddaughter
who carries a sack-weight of doubts?
Me with my desk, and a red pen to correct
others’ mistakes and most of all my own.
I am the last. The buds are shut.
Her sorrows scrubbed out,
burnt, or treated with boiled nettles,
Sarah had to bear the bone-work,
no time to be ashamed of the marks
she scratched in place of her name,
but I mind, for her, with her quiet honour.
Page(s) 34
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