a charm for falling asleep by Penelope Shuttle

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.