Sam Riviere
My Face Saw Her Magazine

across the moonscapes of skateparks you are 13 yrs old
& no longer allowed to play with boys / on platform 6
wearing your amazing cape you are not in fact you
but someone else / while I’m a guy who mishears lyrics
resulting in a more beautiful but private understanding
with your dark fringe white shirt & straw hat you are
the palest goth at the picnic / resolutely uncharmed
by my very charming friend you are the poster of disinterest
in bed & matching underwear you are disguising the
tunnel we dug in the american prison / not answering my texts
what you are is a briefcase glowing with golden contents
I realise I can only look in one eye at a time / it is pure
propaganda the pupil a blot of blackest inkjet ink
in your luxury woollen garment you are an advertisement
for luxury woollen garments / & then & then you wink

'My Face Saw Her Magazine' is published in the winter issue of Poetry Review (101:4), and Sam Riviere will read at the launch event on 18 January. Tickets available.

   

January news

25 Celebrate Burns Night and Rabindranath Tagore anniversary with indian haggis (Telegraph)

24 Is the Costa book of the year to go to poetry for the 3rd year running? (Guardian)

23 There's more to Burns Night than haggis and neeps (Scotsman)

23 Tam o' Shanter voted best Burns (BBC)

23 The mystery of poetry editing: from Eliot to Burnside (Telegraph)

20 Andrew Motion reads a poem for his friend WG Sebald (BBC)

20 Meet the author: Carol Ann Duffy (BBC)

20 Meet the author: Matthew Hollis (BBC)

18 What are the most quoted lines of poetry? (Guardian)

17 John Burnside: How poetry can change lives (Telegraph)

16 John Burnside wins TS Eliot Prize (BBC)

13 Dean Atta's poem about Stephen Lawrence goes viral (Guardian)

12 Quentin Blake has an exhibition at the Foundling Museum of works commissioned for hospitals (Telegraph)

12 Armitage "Sometimes there is nothing sweeter in poetry than a deliberate anachronism." (New Statesman)

3 Carol Ann Duffy wins the poetry category of the Costa Book Prize (BBC)

3 OBE for Poetry Society's SLAMbassadors mentor Chris Preddie (Bookseller)

1 Edward Lear's life as an artist is remembered as his bicentenary year begins (Guardian)

December news

 31 Geoffrey Hill has been Knighted in the New Year Honours List (Guardian)

31 Welsh poet and playwright Dannie Abse becomes a CBE

31 Author, poet and broadcaster Clive James has been awarded a CBE (Telegraph)

24 Jo Shapcott wins Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry (Independent)

More Poetry in the News