Henry Shukman
Shanty
The world outside this room has evaporated
into cloud, and from the cloud
again and again
comes the chime of the church clock,
the hours on fast forward.
The idea of your leaving is so remote
it’s laughable. This cabin
is the chamber of the shell you sought as a girl,
with an endless inward spiral.
It whispered in your ear, shell to shell.
Do you hear the sea stir
at the foot of this house’s cliff-face?
That dong-dong, when it comes again,
is the bell of a buoy in high wind: it’s too late,
love, we are already far from shore.
into cloud, and from the cloud
again and again
comes the chime of the church clock,
the hours on fast forward.
The idea of your leaving is so remote
it’s laughable. This cabin
is the chamber of the shell you sought as a girl,
with an endless inward spiral.
It whispered in your ear, shell to shell.
Do you hear the sea stir
at the foot of this house’s cliff-face?
That dong-dong, when it comes again,
is the bell of a buoy in high wind: it’s too late,
love, we are already far from shore.
Henry Shukman won the Arvon Prize in 2000 and the Aldeburgh Festival Prize in 2002. His first collection, In Dr No’s Garden (Cape 2002), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize.
Page(s) 7
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