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

In night's stillness
snow falls on snow bright
and creaks underfoot.

Night dark of winter
sees light in splintered shards
falling from stars

Tonight the sky is heavy, snow-still
I  will sleep once below a time
until embraced by dawn light.

Roost, raven, roost well.
Seek your dark sanctuary.
Then owl will seek mouse
in the worm-wood.
Hear the cry of the dog fox
as light shades over the pale horizon.
Birds will sing, striking eerie notes
in the pale shadows of morning.

My eyes crawl out of sleep
and outside the snow
rolls over hedges, rooftops.
I will rise to see the sky
above the wind-blown trees,
each crocus on the ground
staying firm
against the frosty blast.
The air is calmed by the scent of morning.

Time to think and time to be,
to make minor adjustments to my dress,
knot my tie firmly, wear my hat
slightly askew, as today
might be the day my life is flipped over
like a coin; heads today you will not lose.

Today, a precious gem held to the light.
Rhythms which dance like sunlight
on the window.
A tango by lovers on each pane.
Today the beginning of a thousand tomorrows.

Even as I write
noon steals upon me.
Interminable rain
will wash away the snow
not before it is a blackened sludge
pitted with puddles.
I venture out, my shoes soon fill,
watery landscape, roads and paths
covered in damp slurry.
I buy cigarettes, milk, bread,
return to a feast
of beans on toast and coffee,
the morning lost and gone
fumbling on my old typewriter.

I venture out
get as far as the bus stop
then change my mind.
The effort of plodding
through this wet snow
rain on my face
is too much.

Seagulls soar past my window
arching and gliding
ready to scavenge.
One perches, lone on a roof edge, alert,
glancing this way and that.

Half past three
seems later in the dullness
of mid afternoon.
Snow falls alternately with rain.
Slow comes the evening
with a promise of sleep
in which dreams are made
in gossamer tinselled webs.
Moving pictures
that tell our stories.