Long Distance
in memory of JC Renaud 1970-2014
Hungover, in winter,
we’re walking by the Hudson River,
New York thick with snow,
the pavements buried
on which Hassidim, Poles,
Mexicans, Sicilians, Finns go,
the Greenpoint diners closed
(yesterday
a waitress sang My Way,
refilling my good coffee,
putting me inside a movie),
my buckled boots soaked through
(a gift on your first city salary),
your salt eyes
happy,
(the night before, a party in a loft
apartment, there was even a poet
in a beret,
one single iron bed lost
in the vast room, Prospect Park
on view)
miles
go by, there is no other way
home.
A stranger digging out a car
holds up one hand, calls out
Hello.
Far from days like those
I GoogleEarth London SW2
to you, fall
into Brooklyn, feel the ground
closing in. There the loft, the river.
There, the long-ago snow.
Anna Kisby is an archivist and poet living in Devon. Her poetry has been placed in competitions and published in a variety of magazines and anthologies.
Frog on Water
I used to walk through woodland and wild garlic
watch leap of frog gold-green on water
touch earth to nose to hear the inside of the forest
crumple leaf against a vein that carries signs
of urban concrete. Blood and brick dust
chip away like grinding teeth of children
up-starting with night terrors, and in daylight
would daydream in crosshatch, shade not colour.
The used to walk which enters into all dreams
terrors of small children transferred across
a generation,
a loss of frog on water.
Chaucer Cameron has poetry published in journals, anthologies and magazines, including The Interpreters House and Amaryllis. She co-edited The Museum of Light, a collaborative anthology of poems and images and Nothing in the Garden, a collection of poetry and still images taken from her thirty-minute poetry film There is Nothing in the Garden. Chaucer’s poetry films have been screened online and at various poetry and film festivals, including Liberated Words International Poetry Film Festival, The University of Gloucestershire, Bristol Spring Poetry Festival and Moving Poems. Chaucer also runs poetry film workshops. See more of her work at www.elephantsfootprint.com
Frog On Water by Chaucer Cameron, film by Helen Dewbery
Abegail Morley 