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Poetry Home Page 

Poems

1 Magpies
2 Chernobyl
3 Return to Chernobyl
4 Absence
5 Circumlocution
6 Persephone
7 Erebus revisited
8 Alice's Cat
9 Sometimes I see a cloud
10 Lost Child
11 On the coach to Hay-on-Wye
12 Brecon Cathedral
13 Honeymoon
14 Waiting
15 How can I say I love you?
16 Eclipse of the Moon  
17 Big Issue
18 Resurrection

On the coach from Hay-on-Wye

Riding high we can see over hedges
frothing with cow-parsley, road edges
jewelled with campion, stitchwort
A slant of light so bright
we have to shield our eyes. An ingot meadow
gleams against the mountains shadow.
Slowing through villages, we peer into lives,
a woman washing, an old man tends his hives.

After Llanwyrda the road to Lampeter snakes
in. out, up, down. The coaches motion makes
us sway against each other. Sudden trumpet
notes, sweet and clear; the croon of a clarinet.
Two men at the back begin to improvise:
'Georgia', 'Summertime'. We close our eyes.
Phrases chase and follow. We listen
to a conversation, note on note in this mini jam-session.
A moment of pure happiness descends
rare as a butterfly on outstretched hands.

Poems for private use only. © Anne Grimes. Email Graphics by Bruce Grimes