Kevin Crossley-Holland
Happy Birthday
for Dominic at 16
How do you do, bone-house?
Here's another stepping-stone
on this risky journey —
another pause for understandings:
three pawns are worth more
than a bishop; the more I give,
the more I have to give;
no perspective without humour;
panache wins admirers; to act,
always to be my own audience;
language ties and language cuts,
mightier than Excalibur.
You will bother to read this
and take issue with it
one way or another
almost as a matter of principle.
You have a sort of spiky grace,
like a conker in its armour,
a crocketed spire, the elbows
and knees of the contrary sea.
Happy birthday, bone-house!
Here's another stepping-stone
on this risky journey—
another pause for understandings:
remember the child I'm leaving;
work against small wars;
today colours tomorrow;
I will not miss the boat to the stars
Page(s) 68
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