Hydrotherapy

                                                                                       as
                                                                                  gods play
                                                                             on sanctus strings

                                                                                       healing
                                                                                  fingers bring
                                                                                liquid upon you

                                                                                       spilt
                                                                                     down after
                                                                                 down cliff after

                                                                                         cliff
                                                                                   without plan
                                                                                to basin a
     
                                                                                        place
                                                                                   to rest
                                                                                to rust from

                                                                                        one
                                                                                   hour to
                                                                                 next in salts

                                                                                         silt
                                                                                      scatter of
                                                                                  light and elect

                                                                                            pain
                                                                                       is not
                                                                                 granted to us

                                                                                          prayer
                                                                                      thrives in
                                                                                 lit air O

                                                                                         holy
                                                                                     spirits you
                                                                               walk up there

by Andrew Bailey

Many apologies for the fact that this week’s Weekly Poem is late. This was due to a server problem, and we hope to have resolved it for now.

Those of you following us on Facebook, Twitter, or looking over the recent Forward Prizes shortlists, will have seen the exciting news that Brookes’ Creative Writing Fellow Patience Agbabi has been shortlisted for Best Single Poem for ‘The Doll’s House’. You can read the poem on the Poetry Society website (pdf), and find out on the Brookes website about how Patience came to write it.

The Poetry Centre and the Department of English and Modern Languages is also delighted to announce a PhD Studentship in Poetry. This is a three-year, full-time PhD studentship in any aspect of Poetry and Poetics. More details can be found here, and we would very much welcome your circulation of this news.

‘Hydrotherapy’ is copyright © Andrew Bailey, 2012, and reprinted from his book Zeal, published by Enitharmon Books in 2012.

Notes from Enitharmon:

In Zeal, Andrew Bailey honours the moments in which the everyday face of the world slips for a second. Dream, myth, faith or intoxication will lead you there; but these glimmers can intrude upon a life when they are least expected. With a poetic eye alert to these moments and roots in the work of Redgrove, Raine, Hopkins and Blake, Bailey’s writing follows an unselfconscious and fascinating path toward the more than quotidian. Penelope Shuttle called Zeal ‘[a] notable début’, observing that ‘[e]lements of earth, air, fire and water are the presiding spirits of this collection, poems that explore transactions between a strongly realised physical world and inward experience. Fluid tactile language is tempered here by stringent observation and wit.’ You can find out more about the collection on the Enitharmon site, and follow Andrew Bailey’s work on his blog and on Twitter.

Enitharmon Press takes its name from a William Blake character who represents spiritual beauty and poetic inspiration. Founded in 1967 with an emphasis on independence and quality, Enitharmon has been associated with such figures as Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and Kathleen Raine. Enitharmon also commissions internationally renowned collaborations between artists, including Gilbert & George, and poets, including Seamus Heaney, under the Enitharmon Editions imprint.

Copyright information: please note that the copyrights of all the poems displayed on the website and sent out on the mailing list are held by the respective authors, translators or estates, and no work should be reproduced without first gaining permission from the individual publishers.