in the stream;1look, the duck-rabbits swim between.The Mill Raceat Granta Placetosses them from form to form,dissolving bodies in the spume. Given A and see2find be3(look at you, don’t look at me)4Given B, see A and C.that’s what metaphor5is for. Date and placein the expression of a face6provide the framefor an instinct to rename,7to try to […]
Hit wis da swans, dat’s whit it wis.Dat’s whit set da day apairt. Twa cygnets, happit in emsket,a midder, a faider. A peerie geo aa ta wirsels, whaar waves yockitsands saftly, maas cried oot abun, an da sun drappit waarmest hugsapö wir shooders, glinkin atween white cloods o oo. Bit da swans,no buddered be dat, […]
I resembled a self un-sewn a child’s drawing in a hospital room
when I left that room I was wonky
walking the way a stain would run
Condition of Fire is a film by Alastair Cook based on seven poems from poet J.L. Williams’ debut collection.
As I lay asleep in Italy
There came a voice from over the Sea
And with great power it forth led me
To walk in the visions of Poesy.
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Handscroll
becoming still still becoming
O wad this braw hie-heapit toun Sail aff like an enchanted ship, Drift owre the warld’s seas up and doun, And kiss wi’ Venice lip to lip, Or anchor into Naples’ Bay A misty island far astray Or set her rock to Athens’ wa’, Pillar to pillar, stane to stane, The cruikit spell o’ her […]
Dust is curious. / Dust is thirsty.
Something near to true
night-darkness. The children
are playing the Plinky-Boat –
a xylophone made
from a reclaimed yoal
After she died, I swear the sky
/ Had the most beautiful of all sunsets,
/ A blush of pink, then red, a glass…
