The 2012 Aldeburgh Poetry Festival runs for the 2nd-4th November, and for the next week, Ink Sweat & Tears will be featuring poems on the theme ‘Poetry as a Lifeline’ which is the subject of the IS&T-supported Discussions and Short Takes this year.  Today’s poem is from Sam Willetts who is appearing at the Festival.  Find out more about the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival here

Garden

Look to your life.
Rest your kindness
and your unkindness
now, and listen: I know
what makes your heart
clench coldly
in all weathers,
I know how it feels
that it always will.
Bear that. Look to your life,
to your one given garden.

Sam Willetts‘ first collection New Light for the Old Dark (2010) was shortlisted for the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize and the TS Eliot Prize.  ‘Garden’ appears in New Light for the Old Dark  which can be ordered here.