Veronica Forrest-Thomson's Collected Poems (Shearsman, 2008), first selection

This first selection comes from Forrest-Thomson's collection, Identi-kit (1967).




The world is winched on an iron chain,
then whirled on a wheel of frost.

*

a sudden jangling skeleton of sound

*

the red-cold sky

from "January Morning"

Wearied with myself I want

a picture that simplifies.

from "Identi-kit"

Entering the dim air where edges

are furred like geranium leaves,

the mind blurs in sympathy,

the line dividing plant and primate,

until to think seems out of place.

opening stanza of "In the Greenhouse"

a will stalled in civilised complexity

*

trying to electrify the unconducive days

from "Aries"

Year's spectrum modulates 

around the centre spectre.

Each single moment's tone

appears alone, yet signals

the gradation in the air

toward the centre spectre;

opening stanza of "Ambassador of Autumn

(By Paul Klee)"

You taught me language, left me with words in hand

to spin their critical cocoon around a life

which others lead, which I can merely understand,

caught in a  web of maybe, ought, and if;

*

exist to exorcise by implication

the amorphous impulses of beast and bird

which, when in need of explication,

must manage without benefit of word.

first and third stanzas of

"The Sentence"

You can buy Veronica Forrest-Thomson's Collected Poems in the UK from Foyle's and in the US from Small Press Distribution.