Poem of the Month 

Philip Gross
Bread And Salt

(for Jonathan and Petra)

Out of the bloodstream steps an old
Estonian. He has waded so far
to bring you this - bread, salt, a threshold
gift, like frankincense and myrrh:
bread the colour of peat
                                            (in Lahemaa
I met a bog pool's gaze, its pickled
moss-threads like an iris round its clear
black, its bottomless knowing)
                                                                and salt
like snow-grit at the roadside, rock-
salt from forced-labour caves where miners
might shrivel and parch and, left for dead,
preserved like salt cod, never rot.
Out of the bloodstream they come to find us
home
        - plain blessings, salt and bread. 

Bread and Salt is from Philip Gross's 2009 TS Eliot Prize winning collection The Water Table, and originally appeared in Poetry Review 98:4. Philip was the judge for the Poetry Society's 2009 Stanza Poetry Competition and winner of the National Poetry Competition in 1982.

Published with permission of the author and Bloodaxe.

Listen to Philip Gross reading from The Water Table.   

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Poetry in the news

FEBRUARY

9 John Rety (Camden New Journal)

9 Win Seamus Heaney tickets (Guardian)

8 Ruth Padel: "I'm not in the business of undermining other writers." (Scotsman)

7 Carol Ann Duffy on why she would make a naughty nun.(Times)

6 Pam Ayres - why opportunity still knocks (Telegraph)

2 Poetry Society member (and multi-Foyle winner) Helen Mort wins £1k Cafe Writers Competition. PS member (and 2007 National runner up) Rosemary Norman, is 2nd.
Other PS members in the commended list include Ian McEwen and Lydia Macpherson.

JANUARY

31 Poetry for Haiti review (Huffington Post)

30 Gordon Brown at Haiti poetry fundraiser: "You know that poetry does what ordinary words can never do themselves alone. Instead of narrowing our view of the world, poetry broadens and deepens our understanding." (BBC)

30 It's a great week for poetry, but when is it not? (Erica Wagner, Times)

29 Josephine Hart on how poetry conquered the Costa (Times)

29 Christopher Reid interview (Guardian)

29 Laureate praises Arctic Monkeys for their poetry (Telegraph)

29 "Poetry in the cinema is embarrassing" (Guardian)

28 Poets to hold 'literary Live-Aid' for Haiti (BBC)

27 How much of a sales boost will the Costa give A Scattering? (Bookseller)

27 Christopher Reid's A Scattering wins £30,0000 Costa Prize (Guardian)

27 Simon Armitage's Madeleine McCann poem (Times)

25 Poets for Haiti (Guardian)

25 Girls love a Bard boy (Sun)

24 Nobel Prize winner looking forward to poetry (Times)

23 My father, my hero - Philip Gross (Guardian)

22 The perils of putting poetry on stage (Guardian)

20 Philip Gross talks about The Water Table (Telegraph)

20 Bright Star on Evening Standard film award shortlists (Standard)

19 Philip Gross (2009 Stanza Competition judge) wins £15,000 TS Eliot prize (BBC) 

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