PICKINGS

Samples of poetry from NHI publications



FIRES AND THE COMET
We followed it the night before,
you almost veered off the road
searching its brilliant spray, facts
you had to hand switching thoughts
to ice and gas: its tail melting,
each particle a year and the dust
we leave behind, how much of it
is swept away; its size from here
to London. We drive towards it:
the illusion of seeing its movement.

Nothing except smoke and flames
consuming stars,moon and the comet
we'll never witness again.
Those firestarters,those prodigies
of emptiness behind the boards
must look proudly upon this:
trees,bracken and heather burning,
white arches of the graveyard
blackened,as ashes are falling
on lawn memorials each the size
and shape of a classroom.

MIKE JENKINS
from
New Hope International Poetry Forum #2

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This page last updated: 24th November 2005.