John Clarke
The Garden
given my own square of earth in this warmth
I gather plants with the quietest foliage
learning their names early some stems so
young and weak that in my hand they
are white fearful and transplant them into
this garden watching their heads bow their
limbs turn in on themselves their tributary
roots like cotton thread slowly shrivel in
the sun surprised by the speed of death
as a silent onlooker of a world beneath
the sterile earth I chart the journeys of
golden beetles who scurry from the light
witness millipedes unearthed and eaten
watch the murderous pursuit of the
lacewing seeing how ants too carry away
their dead
upon the broken step our hands bound
lips mouthing the simplest word we wait
for the hyperventilation to pass
in moonlight wiping the blood from our
faces scratching the earth for air we
learn the names of new shoots before
the dawn keeping the knowledge buried
when both in adulthood our footsteps
untraceable our lips mouth the words
refuge
haven
Page(s) 96
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