Monday, October 18, 2010

poetry snapshots: gill learner



A worm updates itself


Never mind the Tree of Knowledge:
I'd sooner get my teeth into a book, or
better still a row - complete works
from long ago, not bleached or sized.
Give me the tender wrap of calves shaved thin,
a volume in a warm damp room, its spine
relaxed in fishy corrugations. I've delved
into the great minds of the past, chewed over
their hypotheses, digested fantasies
and left behind a dust sucked dry of thought.

But things are harder now: I crack
my head on plastic, slip on silicon.
Yet I'll survive - I found a way
to tunnel the soft underside of 0 and 1.


Published January 2009 in Acumen 63.

Gill Learner lives in Reading and began writing poetry in 2001. She loves reading to an audience, has been published widely and was awarded the Poetry Society's Hamish Canham Prize 2008. Her first collection, The agister's experiment, is forthcoming from Two Rivers Press.

http://www.poetrypf.co.uk/gilllearnerpage.shtml

Monday, October 04, 2010

poetry snapshots: angela france


Skin-deep

She looks in her mirror,
turns slowly and twists
to see over her shoulder.
She can number the marks,
scars of surgery and childbirth.
She peels back her lips,
admires the close fit
of her gums, her sinuous tongue.
She pulls further back.

She loosens her chin, her ears,
shakes her head back
to slip off her scalp.
The rest is easier: a sharp shrug
to free her shoulders, a stroke
down her upper arms.

Pulling the tips of each finger
in turn, she smiles, thinks of gloves,
Audrey Hepburn. She hulas
her hips clear of cellulite,
points her toes to slide off
dimpled stockings, steps free.

She palms over the perfect dome
of her head, strokes muscles
as they move and stretch,
feels her sculpted cheek.
She stands before her mirror,
watches winks of light reflect
from loops of bowel, counts
her heartbeats, her lungs' billow.
She can't help grinning.


Published in 'Occupation', Ragged Raven Press, 2009.

Angela France has had poems published in many of the leading journals, in the UK and abroad. Her second collection, 'Occupation' is available from Ragged Raven Press.
Angela is features editor of Iota and an editor of ezine The Shit Creek Review. She also runs a monthly poetry cafe, 'Buzzwords'.

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