Barbara Joseph
Ecce Homo
(Cyffin Williams exhibition 1999)
I know that man! –
The tattered coat, belted with binder twine,
Collar turned up against the hill winds,
Cap pulled well down, head bent.
Know the hands too,
Calloused and cracked in their frayed mittens.
A strong face, but wary. Eyes mapped
By weather, not by laughter.
And the dogs –
Cymro and Fly, coats plumed by the wind.
Yes, I know him.
And I know the land that owns him:-
Fanged rocks, that eat his life;
Black mountain, that suffers him,
Black Cwm, that plunges deep into his heart.
This is how it is,
How it must be;
Not easy, but accepted. He grows
Out of a soil that will grow little else,
And is worthy of it.
Come, Fly. Cymro, tyrdd yma.
The tattered coat, belted with binder twine,
Collar turned up against the hill winds,
Cap pulled well down, head bent.
Know the hands too,
Calloused and cracked in their frayed mittens.
A strong face, but wary. Eyes mapped
By weather, not by laughter.
And the dogs –
Cymro and Fly, coats plumed by the wind.
Yes, I know him.
And I know the land that owns him:-
Fanged rocks, that eat his life;
Black mountain, that suffers him,
Black Cwm, that plunges deep into his heart.
This is how it is,
How it must be;
Not easy, but accepted. He grows
Out of a soil that will grow little else,
And is worthy of it.
Come, Fly. Cymro, tyrdd yma.
magazine list
- Features
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- 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