Anna Robinson
Lexophilia
I still prefer paperbacks - smaller books
you can hide from stray eyes, from mocking,
fearful eyes that condemn, that make a stranger
of a child who likes the taste of words.
I would have swallowed a dictionary but
was scared. If I found a word when no one
was looking I’d take it with my snake tongue,
fast, and store it for when I’d be alone.
From between my teeth I’d suck and wind words
round my tongue, bubble-gum which could be
hidden, after, in private places -
the backs of buttons on my cardigan
the unwashed bit behind my ears.
Some words were so big or jumpy they’d be
discovered and then I’d run the gauntlet -
big-word-little-mouth, what’s-your-name-Einstein?
don’t-be-clever-it-doesn’t-suit-you
till I learned to keep my mouth shut.
Page(s) 36
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