Mother
Maybe you took god with you when you died
leaving me in this mild place
where a slender snowdrop is pleasing
not a sacrament, the wind less urgent
the plucking of light on water
not oracular
and the fall of shadows no longer aches
dark with meaning I must mediate to the world.
Movements of air lift water
shadows are the softness of things in light
day and night pass simply.
The horizon, not so far now,
rounds my life.
Maybe your going has shown me where I belong
earth between my toes
sky in my eyes.
leaving me in this mild place
where a slender snowdrop is pleasing
not a sacrament, the wind less urgent
the plucking of light on water
not oracular
and the fall of shadows no longer aches
dark with meaning I must mediate to the world.
Movements of air lift water
shadows are the softness of things in light
day and night pass simply.
The horizon, not so far now,
rounds my life.
Maybe your going has shown me where I belong
earth between my toes
sky in my eyes.
Caroline Natzler teaches creative writing in London. Her collection, Design Fault, was published by Flambard in 2001.
Page(s) 40
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