an extract from Evening Journals
first ten nights
of a moon
ten days of rain
letters
duties, pleasures
*
washing my hair
in the dark
everything is easy
soon we’ll sleep
*
winding shadow-house
of Daedalus
echoes
from the painted walls
*
the rain
thinking
about a piano recital
given years ago
by Alfred Cortot
*
snow on the beehives
and little chilly churches
snow falling on the glebe wood
*
melon beds under glass at Heligan
a shift of torrential skies
lobster-blue sea
dusky cloud-rags
turtle-flesh-green cliffs
hivernage of last birdsong
wintering nouns
wakes of fade-light
hedges crack-willow
field horses in their canvas shawls
*
back come the pines
the child
the rivers of long ago
*
I’m worried
because a little cat
has gone into my house
and if one
why not more?
*
gusts of rain
fear
shark-aura of the motorway
cobra-hiss of the artics powering through rain
I saw a girl in white
walking the central reservation
blood-mouthed
*
bulls on their hind legs
on a mountain path
a charm for falling asleep
a creased map showing us
sea levels
thousands of years ago
*
my hotel room
is carved out of rock
it has no door only a curtain
I don’t mind
*
hotfoot
a sack of Faberge eggs
a coat of rain
a box of old menus
rough ground
stars on a plate, fizzing
*
a seductive blue whale
lawful birds
the blind eye of pure life
a saltwater hood for his mother
*
ceilings at prayer
or wallowing about
like dolls
*
taking two doves
to Mrs Webb
on a harmless white-linen day
_________________
Penelope Shuttle has published twelve full collections, and her most recent publication is Father Lear, a pamphlet from Poetry Salzburg, June 2020. Her next publications are the
pamphlet Covid/Corvid, sonnets for the pandemic, in collaboration with Alyson Hallett,
out from Broken Sleep Books in November 2021, and Lyonesse, a full collection from
Bloodaxe Books in June 2021.