The Goose Moon
What are we doing above the poor sea?
Do we dream this bridge of wind
will reach the sour pines of Europe?
Why bother pouring such weather
under the goose moon.
Why bring this denying wing down
from all the worst clocks of the night
to reach no eye, no ear, no lovely wake
of punching sea and chance our white flame
in the hall-less journey here.
Why were we with the ghost snows
so far in the north, in this empty mind
where air peels and pours
in the saintless interior.
And worn out with Jupiter,
beneath our night coal, tip to tip,
we send those scouring messages
for the fat path home, queens of mint air
and the world turns its coarse trim with us
and we are the Christmas sisters
and make the turn and the lit up tide steers us
below the goose moon.
No one is free of the feather dream
and the polished waters ride us
all wing whisper when the call comes to turn,
to break and lead, to return one to another
in the European night
uncovering the jarring saviours
and we imagine human,
unmined and working,
warm with all the land’s resistance,
delivered in houses, in taxes,
in the deaf blood of the roads below.
*Chris Emery was born in Manchester and has published two collections: Dr. Mephisto and Radio Nostalgia, both from Arc Publications. A new collection, The Departure, is forthcoming from Salt. He lives in Cromer with his wife and three children.
Searching for Snow
Press your nose against the pane,
wish for it. Scan the sky. Listen
for the silence of every living thing
braced against the cold.
You want snowmen, snowball contests,
to be snowed in, kept off school.
Some hope, except in dreams
of dragging caked mittens from tingling fingers,
sipping hot chocolate, regressing to ‘Watch with Mother’.
Snow remakes the world for however long it lasts
until the tension goes out of it. As childish
as innocence before grown-up boots stamp it out.
*Angela Topping is a freelance poet and author based in Cheshire. She writes for both children and adults and has four solo collections. 2011 saw four poetry chapbooks released. She is currently working towards a fifth collection. This poem was first published in Voices for Kosovo (Stride 1999)