|
The Argotist Online Home Articles Interviews Poetry Features Ebooks Submissions Links |
|
DAVID
WOOLLEY David Woolley is a freelance arts consultant. He programmes for the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea, including the annual Dylan Thomas Festival (27 Oct - 9 November - www.dylanthomas.org). These poems are from his forthcoming (third) collection, Written on our hands from Headland Press.
Angel there
you are with
arms outstretched that
some may say you're out of proportion overreaching
yourself too big for your boots but
why not angel that's what art is for not
to stay rooted in the mire but to stretch out reach
over the land with
back to the south face
first into that great
north wind your
feet planted firm
in Geordie soil icon
of strength symbol
of solidity able
to ride shifting
sands happy
to wear the
famous number 9 you'll
go on standing proving
that art can
be tough can
talk in iron and
bone not just
in head and heart that
whatever comes it
will endure point
the way forward
not upward rooted
in earth not sky proving
that real angels never
fly Duart
Castle
guarding
still the
entrance to
Mull improbably
perched on
a hill on
the wind
gull a
single
in
north Mull the
road
to
Calgary Is
a hair
pin
zig
zag
switch
back track down
to a
wide
white
bay where,
maybe some long-gone day victims
of the clearances turned
their backs forever on
this land their
last sight this soft white
sand and
sailed for the New World surprised
to find there much
wide
open
space and
now such
long
straight
roads Water
f
a
l
l
s
e
v
e
r
y
w
h
e
r
e
on Mull
copyright
© David Woolley |