Martin Stannard
Before We Go To Sleep Let's Say
We could have been interested
but someone lit a fire under
our country and that was that.
There were three of us
sheltering under one man’s umbrella.
Who was the man? And was there rain?
We had come a long way to see
Invasion of the Body Warmers. Then
this. The things you can’t forget.
The journeys that beg to be symbolic.
Being born was like falling
out of an airplane. Waking up next to
a stranger was also scary.
And the only person to mention fun
was having a really bad time.
Who was that masked man?
(A distant dog barks at the falling dusk
as several fantastic creatures stalk
the shore a few hundred yards from here
in search of sounds that suggest silence.)
No matter who you are.
No matter what you are.
And no matter who you are
the people here will take you
to their hearts.
This is what they mean
when they say It’s a wonderful life.
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