Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

5. Walking on Water - part 1

she knew it was possible
(the pond skimmer)

and impossible
(the Titanic)

and neither mattered
to her at the moment.

Feeling so strong,
she stepped out on to the Adriatic
wearing just blue string

she sank.

The water squashed her all over.
It even squashed her hair.

For a while, her blue shadow
seemed joined to her squashed flesh
and she was accepting things

suddenly a kick and her body spluttered up,
flattened, squeezed, ever so slightly dented

but she was still strong.

It hadn't worked.

But it was only a matter of time.

6. Walking on Water - part 2

this time, she didn't go alone.
She dispensed with the blue string,

took five dancer friends who
belonged to the Human Rights Watch -

a movement dedicated to free expression
and international goodwill -

it was they who suggested
turning the water on its side
and walking along its depth
rather than its surface.
She thought this sounded too much
like one of their dances
but she liked their work,

they were her friends.

She decided to go along.
She still felt strong.

They also suggested working
in black and white
(fitted with her feeling about the string)
and trying to create
a Botticelli like circle

of pointed fingers
arched ankles
clenched buttocks
and turned cheeks.

She agreed that it might make
a beautiful frozen moment
so they synchronised
and swam in;

hair still squashed,
bodies still felt battered,
lungs ached

but the moment happened.

This time she returned
feeling as though she had walked

a little.

14. God is just a small part of my work
               homage to Man Ray

you see it so clearly
from those hairbrush eyes

the crystallisation of years of tears
complete;

they sit like pearls
moored onto your skin

you've seen the ducks and swans
walking on the winter canals
and you know that you won't
need skates to join them

the tears

are the tears of joy