William Greig
Unfurling the 'tent of blue'
After anticyclonic gloom all winter long,
Spring burst forth, bristling, ship-shape and Bristol fashion.
I saw shadows as if for the first time;
The guy ropes of the prisoner’s sky, that ‘tent of blue’, were set free
Unfurling an endless azure ocean above the horizon.
The forsythia bubbled yellow as the sun
And the snowdrops cried for sheer joy.
Crocuses, purple, orange and white, stood to attention
And presented arms with their stamens.
The stem of the daffodil bulged pregnant and yellow.
Spring was sharp as the sound of the latch of a garden gate;
Wrought iron on iron.
The birds bellowed, clocks struck more resonantly and colour returned.
We had stayed the course, winter was undone, unfolded, behind us;
Its grip had finally loosened
And we could breathe again.
Spring burst forth, bristling, ship-shape and Bristol fashion.
I saw shadows as if for the first time;
The guy ropes of the prisoner’s sky, that ‘tent of blue’, were set free
Unfurling an endless azure ocean above the horizon.
The forsythia bubbled yellow as the sun
And the snowdrops cried for sheer joy.
Crocuses, purple, orange and white, stood to attention
And presented arms with their stamens.
The stem of the daffodil bulged pregnant and yellow.
Spring was sharp as the sound of the latch of a garden gate;
Wrought iron on iron.
The birds bellowed, clocks struck more resonantly and colour returned.
We had stayed the course, winter was undone, unfolded, behind us;
Its grip had finally loosened
And we could breathe again.
Page(s) 22
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