New Poem by Penelope Shuttle

Eyewear is very pleased to offer a new poem by Penelope Shuttle, this autumn Sunday. Her new book, Sandgrain and Hourglass, is just out from Bloodaxe, and is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. It will be reviewed here soon.

Loss

I search the lake shore every morning

for medicines, and for that silver cub, fame

Autumn does his best to make up

for the unfinished chapters of our life,

as does the dark-bright gaze

of the little living goddess of Kathmandue

on today’s front page

For a million years,

God struggled to create the cat

from the lion’s sneeze,

took another million years

to perfect the whale’s heartbeat -

Surely I can bear, for my short lifespan,

these five wounds of loss

in my hands, feet and heart

no herb can heal,

no season, not even autumn,

knows how to bear

poem by Penelope Shuttle

Comments

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