Philip Gross
The Twentieth Century
from Pylon Foot and Pinhole Eye
How many hours in the sealed truck night or day,
how many miles north or east, how many degrees
below – even if any other body there could say
in any other’s language it would have been drowned
by steel on steel. His one thought left was: find a way
to see – rasping a tin spoon’s broken handle round,
round in damp wood – blisters, blood – punching through
a spyhole just as the train winced to a halt; the sound
of stillness was the tinnitus of steam. His eye pressed to
the hole, he made out grayish girders in the dim light,
maybe a crane – a bridge – and this is all he ever knew,
maybe a dockside – a guard tower – a construction site
a life sentence of labour, or a radio telescope array
to scan impartial stars, beyond our day, our night.
how many miles north or east, how many degrees
below – even if any other body there could say
in any other’s language it would have been drowned
by steel on steel. His one thought left was: find a way
to see – rasping a tin spoon’s broken handle round,
round in damp wood – blisters, blood – punching through
a spyhole just as the train winced to a halt; the sound
of stillness was the tinnitus of steam. His eye pressed to
the hole, he made out grayish girders in the dim light,
maybe a crane – a bridge – and this is all he ever knew,
maybe a dockside – a guard tower – a construction site
a life sentence of labour, or a radio telescope array
to scan impartial stars, beyond our day, our night.
Philip Gross is Professor of Creative Writing at Glamorgan University. He has written several books of poetry, and a wide range of novels for young people. His most recent poetry collection, The Egg of Zero, was published by Bloodaxe Books in February 2006. He has also recently published The Abstract Garden, a collaboration with engraver Peter Reddick.
Page(s) 56
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