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Poetry Focus On: JANET ROGERSON

Janet Rogerson
Janet Rogerson has a pamphlet A Bad Influence Girl with The Rialto, which was published in 2012. Her qualifications include an MA in creative writing and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE). At the moment she teaches Creative Writing in the community and is also doing a PhD at the University of Manchester.  The poem below is from this highly-recommended collection, which will be reviewed here in September.



The sun is a guillotine

dropping its blade,
an arbitrary executioner.
It makes us followers of ourselves
and has us emerge around corners before us.

One afternoon, walking down
a parched avenue, you slip
into a bar named Hopper’s.
The trees across the way

are fidgeting on the barroom floor.
You sit in a booth, your glass drips
and shimmers like a cave crystal.
You sit in black and white

as the jukebox plays a song
then the shadow of a song.
The trees do this and that
just leaves on the dance floor.

She wants to lie down in your shadow,
she’s so in love with you
that night-time brings an irrational
fear of what shadows can do.

The sun beheaded three men
in the bar that day
and shadows grew
to ridiculous lengths.

poem by Janet Rogerson, online with the author's permission.

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Comments

Poetry Pleases! said…
Dear Janet

Very nice imagery in this ingenious poem. Good luck with 'A Bad Influence Girl.'

Best wishes from Simon
Wed Jul 18, 01:51:00 pm 2012
Anonymous said…
Thanks Simon, it's very kind of you to take the time to comment.
Best wishes, Janet
Tue Jul 24, 07:49:00 pm 2012
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