Just saw this now. Ten shortlisted poets vying for a Picador collection - this is a good initiative. Glad to see Mort, Wilkinson and Buckley on the list - all poets I have involved in Oxfam projects - and delighted to learn the names of others I hadn't yet encountered yet. British poetry is bursting at the seams with talent at the moment; glad some of it is being scooped up and offered out.
A poem for my mother, July 15 When she was dying And I was in a different country I dreamt I was there with her Flying over the ocean very quickly, And arriving in the room like a dream And I was a dream, but the meaning was more Than a dream has – it was a moving over time And land, over water, to get love across Fast enough, to be there, before she died, To lean over the small, huddled figure, In the dark, and without bothering her Even with apologies, and be a kiss in the air, A dream of a kiss, or even less, the thought of one, And when I woke, none of this had happened, She was still far distant, and we had not spoken.
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