Spring Lament by Douglas Robertson
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Take this spurred
violet
from the spread
of cordate leaves
under the willow –
five petals and a stab of light
hooked on a pin
and shaking
with rain
Keep it pressed
to the place you are now
where for the very first
time the lovers
have just
kissed
and no-one's hurt
or fading
or lost
Anne Berkeley
“The Woods are Knitting New Clothing for Spring”
The woods are knitting new leaves
into the Great Book of the Year,
ancient oaks wind us in
among clever branches
twigs plucking at buttons and sleeves
to turn into acorns and new shoots
until we tremble
like a new-strung orchestra.
We may think we can walk away
unchanged in the moon-made evening
back to our shingled homes
on lamplit streets
but we are woven into the trees
like threads of fine fabric –
you may hear us singing
among the deep dark roots of spring.
Caroline Carver
*Douglas Robertson is an artist who divides his time between his home in Hampshire, and researching and traveling in his native Scotland. He regularly works in collaboration with poets, and was recently artist-in-residence at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh. To see more of his work, go here.
*Anne Berkeley’s first collection, The Men from Praga (Salt, 2009), was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Centre Prize. She edited Rebecca Elson’s acclaimed posthumous collection A Responsibility to Awe, and is one of the poetry group extraordinaire, Joy of Six.
*Caroline Carver has won or been placed in many competitions including the National in 1998 and a commendation this year. Both poems draw on her Jamaican childhood. She’s a Hawthornden Fellow, has published three collections and is resident poet at Cornwall’s Trebah Gardens.