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

Poetry Library Southbank Centre - The Poetry Library housing the Arts Council Collection at Southbank Centre

« Previous item
Contents of this issue
Next item »

Sally Read

print this page

Adoration in the Forest

for John Burnside

Fra Lippi,
Chaplain to Santa Margherita
                                              was expelled in 1456
for making love to Lucretia,
a nun.

While others painted local prostitutes
I imagine he painted
his lover:
              Adoration in the Forest
secretes traces
of blasphemy.

His madonna’s skin
not so much bathed
in holy butter-light

as wetted
across the forehead,
in hollows beneath her eyes
                                           as if limpid with sweat.

The Father, the Son, John the Baptist
are blank as paper
                             but there is a flickering
from her downcast eyes;
                                      the gossamer that clings
to her neck;
her elbows and cheeks, curved
like breasts.

                  And kneeling, yes,

but tensile, as if
she would rise
or else fall back on her heels;
                                            smooth her skirt

and listen

to the shadowed rocks
the dark trees
fretted with intent,
folding in pine-needles, beetles;
                                                an inescapable murmur
                                                encroaching her.

The Father, the Son, John the Baptist
withstand it

but it seems that her wholeness
is too natural
                    to endure;
must bruise in the same way

a thumb plunges through
the mottled flesh
                          of a ripe, and softening, fruit.

 

Page(s) 26-27

Back to top