Song from Hergest (a poem)

For a long time, I resisted poetry. While I was an academic, I learnt to speed-read all books but, without any doubt, you can’t speed-read poetry. I retained a sneaking admiration for Adrian Mitchell, who still delights me. The big shift came during lockdown. I was part of a Zoom-based creative writing class taught by Stephen Jenkins. He had a wonderfully permissive, tolerant and encouraging approach to writing: he’d just say, it’s all words. And so, the class cheerfully produced poetry, short stories, memoirs and dialogues without paying any attention to the boundaries of the genres. Each week we were given prompts. And then, one week, I just knew that I’d have to write a poem. In fact, ‘Song from Hergest’ wasn’t my first poem for that class, but it came pretty soon after lockdown. The poem’s set in the Hergest Ridge cafe, not out on the Ridge itself. It was first published by Dogs in the January 2023 edition of the Abergavenny Small Press Literary Journal. (Available here as PDF: Hergest)

Song from Hergest

A checker-board lawn glistens in the sun

Chess-piece people move diagonally

Bishop’s castle to king’s three

 

Gigantic trees

Waft in the cut-grass wind

A girl turns cartwheels, her mother laughs

‘They all do that’

 

Waitresses flit:

Victoria sponge cake and cappuccino

Cream tea twice

Coffee and walnut, a pot of Earl Grey

Cheese sandwich

 

Waiting for you

I heard birdsong

Felt sunlight

Dreamed a poem