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 »

Geraldine Paine

print this page

The Flood

Once, eight Armada oaks held up this room.
where woodsmoke curled among the peasant props
and occidental tales coiled round a name:
Gilles 1654 – a young man’s mark.

Here forests rang with Cathar cries, the clash
of pike on spear, the wolves ran terrified
as crusaders marched towards the limestone tors
to find Perfecti near. A burning filled the air.

We were a thousand miles away the year
the windows steamed and rafters swelled, returned
to sponge trees. It had rained five months it seemed.
Now, strips of pine supplant the sodden joists -
they shine, and more, they make the room so light!
But they’re tongue-tied, they tell me no stories.

 

Perfecti, a form of wandering clergy in the Languedoc region of France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, were Cathars who chose to live pure, celibate lives. They were condemned as heretics by the Catholic Church.

'The Flood' is published in Geraldine Paine's first collection "The Go-away-Bird", Lapwing Publications, ISBN 9781905425921

Page(s) 34

Back to top