The musician speaks of the Pacific
We are the something of sirens
this, our urgent-sound:
laughter deepening an acreage
of littered whisperings; eyelash sea-greens.
Steady me. In this breeze, moments come free.
Place your hands on my shoulders
and I’ll whistle the breeze about your ears,
that’s also free.
My companion. My don’t know you, yesterday.
My knew you not, tomorrow. My deep of calendars,
drawn at the net’s mouth, hauled over the industry of turtles,
creased at the neck by so many days, folded into boxes,
that shine in the sun with the shell drum open;
I am become the music of Galapagos.
Startle me. By showing me mankind,
adrift in cars; their latherings of ‘I must have’, scraping the beaches.
Helen Pletts: (www.helenpletts.com) (Instagram @helen.pletts) Working collaboratively as Word & Image by Pletts & Berger with illustrator Romit Berger, since 2012 (published exclusively online by www.inksweatandtears.co.uk). Helen’s poetry was consecutively shortlisted for Bridport Poetry Prize 2018 and 2019, twice long-listed for The Rialto Nature & Place Competition 2018 and 2022, and longlisted for the Ginkgo Prize 2019. ‘The plane tree entertains the circus of doves’ won the Ink Sweat & Tears Pick of the Month in March 2019.
Romit Berger: “I am a graphic designer. I met my very dear friend, Helen Pletts, in Prague, several years ago. Helen’s inspiration has led my graphic design career into that magical realm which combines illustration and poetry, and our creative wings continue to connect our souls through time and distance.”
‘The musician speaks of the Pacific’ will be published the Pletts & Berger’s forthcoming Word & Image collection ‘your eye protects the soft-toed snowdrop’ out from Gama Poetry Press (Israel).