National Book Tokens<\/a> gift card.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It Starts with Her Awkward Hairline<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
the bit behind her ear, along the bone,
\nI accidentally on purpose stroke
\nas the comb starts to move freely. Her head
\nbetween my knees, a kiss on her lobe \u2014
\nsomething she wouldn\u2019t get in a salon \u2014
\nand fingers that look for further lugs.
\nThe part along her neck too, the transition
\nof neck and scalp, like beach and sea
\nwhere hairs grow upward. Once she
\nhid it from view, calling herself simian;
\nand now it\u2019s a zone<\/em>, one she says I made
\nfor her, that wasn\u2019t there before.
\nI kiss this too, following the teeth
\nand say: \u2018Repeat: \u201cI am beautiful.\u201d\u2019
\nShe says: \u2018You<\/em> are beautiful.\u2019 Still that\u2019s
\nbetter than it was, as I work on her
\none stage at a time. All that\u2019s left now
\nis the style, and I start back with the comb,
\nfan out a fringe as she watches TV.
\nThe filaments are the days we\u2019ve got left.
\nRoots of silver I cover with cosmic blue.
\nAnd here an echo, almost unheard.
\nI did this for another. I was smaller.
\nWe had an electric fire. She wore
\nrollers. And it was far from a chore,
\nrather utmost pleasure, untangling
\nstrands until they flowed like rivers.
\nI still seem to know how much pressure
\nto apply, not to hurt a single nerve.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Voters’ comments included:<\/p>\n
I love the tenderness conveyed in this poem and how it manages to draws the reader in. I also like how it makes use of a single experience to draw to time periods and relationships together. <\/em><\/p>\nThough I like many here, I think this is the best poem. It’s moving and evocative. <\/em><\/p>\nvery loving , gentle, sensitive and enthralling.<\/em><\/p>\nSweetly erotic, makes for a multiplicity of devotional feelings adopted in childhood, carried through to a maturity of romantic love that care alone deems redundant. This one is a national treasure. <\/em><\/p>\nUnsettling<\/em><\/p>\nBeautiful piece of subtlety <\/em><\/p>\nTender. Full of feeling & sensitivity. A delight. <\/em><\/p>\nThoughtful, sensational lines and the courage to hunt down what he wants to say. Wonderful structure that draws the reader into the heart of the poem. Enjoyed. <\/em><\/p>\nIt’s observant and a deeply charged and intimate poem! Patri has a scholarly edge over many. He has an incisive way of constructing poems with a great thoughtfulness. <\/em><\/p>\nA moment perfectly captured. Touching intimate detail. Clever time shift<\/em><\/p>\nIt makes my mum tangible<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Selected voters’ comments on the rest of the shortlist are below:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jinny Fisher, ‘The Scarf’<\/p>\n
The pure simplicity of it, great layout, love the repetition, so much in a few perfect words.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Robin Houghton, ‘Tying the bowline’<\/p>\n
The way it flows and builds up an image in the mind…<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Emily Oldham, ‘Love’<\/p>\n
It conveys so much in so few words. And I love the lines “So you take nothing from the dark when you flee, except your voice.” Because we do often flee from love but that gets us very little.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Paul Smith, ‘The Mattress Conspiracy’<\/p>\n
Got me at the first line!<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
M. G. Stephens, ‘Missing Silverware’<\/p>\n
Never read such an accurate reflection of my own memory!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We are now very pleased to announce that the Pick of the Month for February 2016 is ‘It Starts with Her Awkward Hairline’ by Patri Wright. Patri has been shortlisted for the 2015 Bridport Prize, and poems from his pamphlet Nullaby have been published in several magazines, including Agenda and\u00a0Brittle Star. He is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[135,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-poetry-picks","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10391"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23808,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10391\/revisions\/23808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}