| Profiel van LiaLia BrooksFoto'sWeblogLijsten |  Extra  Help |
The Illness of a LilyA crown spins on my pond, heirless.
I’m not fond of them. They die quickly, never
bare their redness. I let a frown drop
through buckled water. It follows
the greying lily to bed. But this isn’t innocence
like a lamb slipping muddy; another stone
unearthed from high cliffs. A falling spark
of white, beautiful against the night rock-face
as a boat clings to the cove-- a nomad
come home in this stormy climate. I sit now
at the end of the pier, penning weather
to the page in layers. Again, I borrow you
for my dry tongue, and like elderflower wine;
sweet, yet temporary-- watch you see the world
open and close like a smile. Trees bend branches
like shutters against the wind, loosely,
like shingle on the shoreline.
We stood there
on the valley road. I lied as an indignant child might,
watched sheepdogs surround the lower field, pull
their flock back from the ravine, uninjured.
And you laughed, said our path was interesting,
forking, folding much like pond lilies. I pour water
from a crown, bathe the illness I’ll miss
that, for one moment, showed itself well.
Lia Brooks The CollarBells send time onto the hillside after me.
It carries on the wind like a deep throated crow
presses silence away from the spire and cottages.
Weaving between morning’s hawthorn and trees
as I sit here on a fallen birch. Icicles sway
on the firs. A hundred colours of sky
spill through glassy prisms, decorate this eiderdown
of snow beneath my feet. As each light reflects
another bird searches the woods.
He has sent them,
released their coiled wings from a cage
of fingers. Little black swells that grow
the closer they come. This man in his tower, pulling firm
on the ropes, is masterful-- cracking sky like a pale
blue shell, pushing his shackle of beaks through.
Their caws will find me. Rough twines of string
under his hands are estuaries I reveal
as I brush the frosted bark. These tangle of rivers,
aged and earthy, lead back to him. I taste them
in the air like the bread he broke on my tongue--
dry and clean, as villagers lit a bonfire
in the Square. I heard them singing
as we spoke in the annexe. I told him the wax
on the candle was me-- each time he burned
the wick, my blood coursed the sides, over his table.
He drew warmth into a hungry mouth, tried to catch
the perfumed curl of smoke leaving
and pinched out the flame. I remember his body
moving across floorboards to find me, the same way
he searches now-- desperate and wanting. He calls
through this stillness of winter, but I will not go.
Lia Brooks 8th of May/In The WallsI I sit in bed the lamp switched on empty my head of words so sleep can carry me more easily.
Pipes batter and caw behind brick press echoes between vents and disturb shadows in my room.
II When the man came, he laid a white sheet over the carpet, unclipped tools from their case, tore the throat from my fire.
His hands, covered in black soot, explored the darkness of the breast. With the calmest concentration he pulled a grey bird out from inside.
until feathers ran clean and beak opened.
III
between two homes - both weathered and waiting, we stand while parents watch from fallen blossoms by the apple tree. As large hands catapult a small white bird, doves rise from my garden.
Lia Brooks Lia Brooks
Where will you find me?...
..in magazines, anthologies, journals and e-mags. Some of which include;
'The Cornflower', 'Rebecca's Garden', 'Lunar and a Small Child', 'Sleeping with Planets' and 'Our Garden' in Poets Gone Wild Anthology 2005 and mentioned in the Half Drunk Muse review of this anthology;
'Taming the View' on Half Drunk Muse's site (Painter/Poet Collaboration)
'Giant', 'Arrant' and 'The Collar' in Loch Raven Review 2005
Commended for 'Cuttlefish' in New Leaf's Short Poetry Contest (Leaf Books) 2006
'Blue' published in A Chaos of Angels Anthology by Word Walker Press 2007
'Journey Stone' in South Magazine 2008
'The Rowan' published in California Quarterly Magazine 2008
'The Sink Eels' and 'Pincer' in Penumbra Magazine 2008
'Tea and the Yagura' in Poets on Site Anthology 2008-2009 (Painter/Poet Collaboration & Exhibition with Henry Fukuhara)
'Jacob' published in California Quarterly Magazine 2009
'The Drive' published in Shadowtrain Magazine 2009
A link to another of my sites containing a sequence poem;
The Sea and InkwellWelcome to The Sea and Inkwell.
Within this space you will find much to do with poetry and painting. I have lots to squeeze in so I'm hoping this space is an entire universe.
Lia
|
|
|
