Poem of the Month 

Neil Rollinson
From Talking Dead

The Wall

Time before and time after – T.S. Eliot

It was a day like any other 
when they came for us.
This was the world we knew,
except the light was different:
the sky, the leaves, the distant sea.
We held hands as we walked,
and they walked behind us,
smoking cigarettes, talking
in hushed tones, embarrassed.
Only the colours troubled me,
the dandelions, how bright they were.
I hadn’t noticed that before.
The world will carry on, you said,
but I wasn’t sure. I had an intuition
that once I was gone
it was the end for everyone.
You gripped my hand as we came
to the wall. You were the one
true constant in everything.
The stone was warm, we could feel
the heat against our backs.
There was a scent of marjoram.
The sea was blue, and a single ferry
sailed out of the harbour.  

Published with the poet's permission. The Wall and other poems by Neil Rollinson will appear in the spring issue of Poetry Review, due week ending 29 March. 

Neil Rollinson was a judge in this year's National Poetry Competition.  

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Poetry in the news

MARCH

12 Why pop and poetry are not such strange bedfellows (Guardian)

10 Labour's lost loves: art and poetry. If the party is to reconnect with its soul, it needs to revive the passion for culture that seems to have ended with Michael Foot (Guardian)

8 Ben Whishaw interview on day of Bright Star DVD release (Metro)

8 Carol Ann Duffy is going the distance (Independent)

7 I've had the rhyme of my life: inside a prestigious getaway for Foyle Young Poets of the Year. Enter the 2010 competition. (IOS) 

6 Tory plans for poetry (Daily Mail)

3 Chatto & Windus publish charity poetry/prose anthology designed to be read aloud (Bookseller)

3 Douglas Dunn on Oxford Poetry professor role: "I don't have time to dedicate to the post" (Edinburgh Journal)

2 Abraham Sutzkever: last great Yiddish poet and a defender of his language (Guardian)

1 Duffy: "The people of Haiti need our humanity right now" (BBC)
 
1 John Rety obit (Telegraph) 
 

 

 

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