Joan Sheridan Smith
‘What are we to wear?’
The components aren’t worth much,
not enough to buy a handkerchief
let alone a pair of socks,
but put together much more precious
than cloth of gold.
Out of the marvellous linking of the cells
the shapely bones are knit with fibres
more strong than steel. The ribs’ fine arches
enclose the heart whose regular dance
sends the red blood through arteries and veins
that thread their interlacing
under the cushioning of flesh.
Over it all, the skin, waterproof, flexible,
textured like finest silk.
Consider hair, a shining cataract
in satin folds or clustered in a fine
embroidery to frame the face.
Behind the glistening eye, the intricate
unseen reticulations of the brain,
the powerful animation of the whole.
This is the body, temple of the soul.
Page(s) 71
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