Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

1

She smiles at me

as remnants of silence littering a storm
as shadows touching hot skin
as the sudden taste of sea-air
as warmth from soft fingers
as the pulse of a lover’s heart
as soft wind pulling uncertain wheat

the pool of moonlight
offers shadows
for your hot skin
your breath caressing
my shoulder
dance of night’s ocean
against tired eyes

I close your door
touch the cold air
with my breath
walk the distance
from your secret warmth
to the true day

where my voice
my skin is dry with dust
where old men buy yesterday’s bread
where the safe remain sightless

they have made kindness
into some kind of commodity

the man who knows kindness
puts no price on it

2

you knew only tenderness
curve of a lover’s neck
                 caught
by the soft word

you took the distance
to this city
                 this big city
and learned
we stole only shadows
from its bright life

you remade the distance
you did not come back

this city holds no lover’s heart

John Wood - Untitled

                         
3

each day I pass
                    I enter
walk through this
cool arcade
where hope gathers
among many whispers

here the snared sit
on warped benches
taking their voices
far from here
                   far
from all this

white shops
glass light
illusions

these are the light’s
thousand pigments
these are the day’s thousand
tainted objects lighter
than skin
                    stronger
than air
softer than water
                    here
I make delicate
changes so that everything
takes on the
                    sharpness
of a new blade

everything
so that we can see
the distance bred by men

everything so that
we no longer feel
the needle of contempt
the fire of coldness
the stigma
                    ignorance
brings

             with their words
they have shaped strength
from your fear

4

I see the marine sky
trail the silk of its shadows
over your skin
when others
avoid its touch

though you are not a
threat

I watch your stained lips
move
answering
the quick talk of sparrows
when others
ignore their presence

I see your tired fingers
stretch
             open
feel
the fall of rain

brother
you cross Market Street
weaving between lines
of slow lunchtime traffic
and lift a hand to shade your eyes
from the glare of sunlight

I watch you
for a while I watch
your doubtful eyes
struggling to find what they can’t find
in this city mapped like scars
on an old face

then you turn
and go
and I slowly
forget you

or I talk
and listen
so that together
we can find it

or I make a symbol
you
              the hero
of all this

5

I enter a bar

in the corner two people share
lager from a single can

I think of you

outside streetlights sever the city
from darkness

it’s late
silence has taken the air
I say goodbye to friends
walk home through
streets stained
by yellow lights

doubts shared
ease their weight
onto other minds
I whisper questions at the night
and I remain
the same hoping
someone would come
perhaps you would
come and say
I know there is a difference

if I think of you
I am with night
and it is day
the light
              which wants
to separate
              to blind
make walls between us