Anna Woodford
Evening Class
Every Monday I go to photography,
to open my apertures, have a stab in the dark room,
experiment with chemicals.
Next door they’re on their second glass of wine,
across the corridor the mood is light as meringue -
while at home kids see to themselves.
At break we fill the partition crack
to become wallflowers at a line-dancing class.
Some people pick up their not-so-hot chocolate
quilted in fencing gear.
Every Monday I go to photography
to train my eye, frame my subject,
learn to see in black and white.
One wrongly-loaded film wrong-footed me from the start,
up and down the garden path firing blanks all week.
Every Thursday you learn Spanish,
language of the girl you left me for.
New phrases collect on your smooth tongue,
your mouth runs to catch your wandering eye
like a hero in a baseball game. Good catch.
In the way you scavenge
when things fall apart,
for information - I know
your first date, when she stayed,
by heart.
Unlearning what I thought I knew.
Every week we expand separate horizons.
On Monday turning my negatives into a positive,
on Thursday you do the same.
Page(s) 55-56
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- Features
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- 10th Muse
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- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
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- 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
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- 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
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- 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