The 2012 Aldeburgh Poetry Festival runs for the 2nd-4th November, and this 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. Find out more about the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival here
Reading James Schuyler
Silver day, how shall I polish you?
or rather ‘Silver day/ how shall I polish you?’,
the line break clicks in but if you start
thinking about it, the poetry
bursts like a soap bubble. You can buy
a machine to blow bubbles now;
the kids all walk straight past it,
bored. But the whole world
was reflected in that bubble, the whole
wobbling, fragile world. Polish.
My dad was a polisher. Saturdays
were Cardinal days. He’d get a blob
of pink wax out of the tin and rub it in.
Even at the end, the ingrained skill
was there. You’d have thought
they were just sharing the chores
but she’d given him that to do because
he was one of those ducks
that follows you for life.
Now she’s older than he ever knew
and someone else is paid to do the cleaning.
I’ve got no duster
but I’m going to buff this silver day
till I can see my face in it.
Carole Bromley teaches Creative Writing at York University and writes a poetry blog for the local What’s On guide <http://www.yorkmix.com> Her first full-length collection, A Guided Tour of the Ice House, was published by Smith/Doorstop in 2011. ‘Reading James Schuyler’ appears in A Guided Tour of the Ice House.
Encounter with Baba Yaga
Having learned to ignore false names
and go between maps
I found a path under the forest
taking care
to arrive at the proper hour.
A choice of three doors.
Right. Left.
(It is never the one in the middle.)
Here!
The woman lets down a river of hair
then waits
a spectator.
My arms are brittle
but I cling on
hoik myself up
drop back,
a bad swimmer
hold my breath
draw near.
She is not like her picture.
We’re in the high cabin.
Heat blazes
though there is no fireplace.
l try not to see
those silver teeth
her bird’s feet
that bone doll on a hook
the unfilled spaces.
My task now
is to say what I came for
in one plain sentence.
Sibyl Ruth is a former winner of the Mslexia Poetry Competition. Encounter with Baba Yaga was inspired by a visit to Oldbury.