Today’s choice
Previous poems
Ian C. Webb
Finistère
June 23rd – 24th, 2016
Two table’s worth of no-longer strangers
at dusk on a lane of nautical miles,
basket of bread, bottles of wine, talk of home
and places called home; watching the beams
of the continent’s light, see a lava-red sun
shrink to a flame at the earth’s ‘very edge’ —
edge of Ostrava, Riga, Leipzig, Graz.
At 5.00 a.m. news from home on every screen;
I wipe the sleep from the blink of an eye,
my shoulders slumped on the rail of the deck —
see the creature’s strut, its busy beak,
obsessed, obnoxious, the ruler of waves.
I am buried at sea, consigned to a martial,
barnacled, wreck; a grubby ghost, I stink of the past.
Ian C. Webb lives in Yorkshire. Recently graduated from the University of York with an M.A. in Poetry & Poetics, his work has appeared in Poetry Salzburg Review, Cathexis North-West Press, French Literary Review, Snakeskin and The Charles Carter.
Day Seven of ‘Wonder’ for NPD: Helen Anderson, Sue Johns
When the light returns
I will remind the garden.
Along with the robins
who have cast off
their Christmas card coyness
to mate.
Day Six of ‘Wonder’ for NPD: Martin McKenna, Emma Dandy
it’s the end of the world and i choose
bottom shelf body wash, top shelf
shampoo. almost all the way over the
edge, i choose brand name bleach, leave
Day Five of ‘Wonder’ for NPD: Shanta Acharya, Sue Finch, Miriam Otto
I step into the darkness as the last light fades.
The stars are not there yet. The campfire gleams
in grey ash. And I am alone with the night.
Day Four of ‘Wonder’ for NPD: Rupert Loydell, Nick Cooke, Dave Hubble
Down the great hill we plunged,
not scared of picking up speed
because that was the point,
running fast as a horse.
Day Three of ‘Wonder’ for NPD: Math Jones, Jean Atkin, Kate Noakes
We’ll find the beach, but first through
the flowering wood, there’s celandine,
little suns of spring, casting.
Day Two of ‘Wonder’ for NPD: Geraldine Stoneham, Guinevere Clark and Annette Skade
I stop reading
but learn the alphabet again,
live on boiled eggs, phonetics,
broccoli heads
Day One of ‘Wonder’ for NPD: Philippa Greasley, Cindy Botha and Niklas Pettersson
Halfway to the island, the engine falters
and every cup trembles in its ring.
Emma Dandy
I’ve been staring at the blank page of this notebook for an hour. I close my eyes and breathe in for four, hold for four and out for eight, then repeat three times.
Ken Cockburn
We slept as best we could on the night train.
Leaving the station we walked empty streets
aimlessly until turning a corner
there it was, silent and vast as the moon.