The third law of motion
You have run a great distance //or a few strides //
such long // such elongated strides // they are
the steep descent // it lengthens // each stride just a little more //
the ground // equal and opposite // exerts the force //
You run // you barely land // to the sounds in the mics
of the grasses that are way up over your waist
while the haulms // calling you back // to world from this bliss
are lashing // lashing // lashing // at your calves //
The only thought you have is of what pounds harder
is it feet on ground // or ground on feet // and is the gas-
for-hoisted-sea that hovers in the heat ahead
dry ground warming // mirror //or the Sea of Galilee?
Amusia
The drum-beats are dreamt by the hands
so large so very round they are as they rebound
The drum-beats are large rebounding things
so hard to catch so hard to hold they empty out
and at their times and speeds rebound and bounce
rebound and bounce rebound and bounce
The hands are hungry they long for expression
they long for suppleness and loose wrists
The hands are hungry and they long to play
they long to express they long to greet
they long to meet to go out and play
with the drum-beats no! no! says the brain
______
Twice shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, for The World Before Snow (Carcanet) and The
Blood Choir (Seren), Tim Liardet has produced eleven collections of poetry. Arcimboldo’s
Bulldog: New and Selected Poems appeared from Carcanet in 2018. He has recently
received an Authors’ Foundation work-in-progress award from the Society of Authors for his
twelfth collection Atlas, Tick, Hog and Gold, now nearing completion.
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