Mike Jenkins
Every Orchestra
Every orchestra needs the viola,
between the trilling and the flow,
so seldom to be given solo,
like altos in the choir.
Every team needs the grafter
the player who holds,
getting dirty with tackles:
unsung beginner of the goal.
Every band needs the bass-player,
never the primadonna,
in time with the song
like the beat of imagination.
Every magazine needs the stamper,
the eye-for-detail subber,
the one whose name appears
between the lines of others.
Every school needs the caretaker,
the seats and tables shifter,
who runs the heat in winter,
making veins from the corridors.
Every family needs the listener,
two in the morning phone-keeper:
the ever-ready ear
to prompt and reassure.
Every orchestra needs the viola,
rarely the melody, the holder
of arch between eye and eye:
the hollow of vibrating air.
between the trilling and the flow,
so seldom to be given solo,
like altos in the choir.
Every team needs the grafter
the player who holds,
getting dirty with tackles:
unsung beginner of the goal.
Every band needs the bass-player,
never the primadonna,
in time with the song
like the beat of imagination.
Every magazine needs the stamper,
the eye-for-detail subber,
the one whose name appears
between the lines of others.
Every school needs the caretaker,
the seats and tables shifter,
who runs the heat in winter,
making veins from the corridors.
Every family needs the listener,
two in the morning phone-keeper:
the ever-ready ear
to prompt and reassure.
Every orchestra needs the viola,
rarely the melody, the holder
of arch between eye and eye:
the hollow of vibrating air.
Page(s) 27
magazine list
- Features
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- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
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- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
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- 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