Linda Macdonald
Turn Up The Beethoven
There perhaps we can escape from the sirens
approaching and receding;
footsteps along the faceless corridors
of hotels in the Capitals,
o 50 discerning chatter in the shopping malls.
Yet even here, above the mist
although the air is still, a lost child moans.
And in the English countryside
if we avoid motorways, intersection sprawls,
secluded villages and dozing hamlets inbetween,
then take the bridal path, and then leave that -
somewhere a gate creaks, a magpie calls.
In the deepest canyons, rivers are deafening.
Down and down the cracks we find or mine
water drips, a rock falls and rebounds.
Even above the Towers of Silence
black wings swoop and rip the skin,
and all those sound-proofed places
are there for other sounds to fill.
Or do we find it between pauses
in the Symphony, in the absence
of a postman’s step, beside a lake
before the coach off-loads its water-proofs,
its ‘Move in closer, smile,’ clicks?
And is it coming, ummmmmmm
with oblivion?
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