the colour of power hanging in the air
is a word for sun on warm stone
made transparent
as sky and trees
repeat leaves in flame
on the other side a flight path
where finches throw their outlines
wings etch themselves on windows
in the stun of what stops them
an identified span
of feather grease and dust
a curve of passageways
glazed over a bird
flies in
lost in exits
and entrances a tongue silent
behind a mouth that moves through glass
when the door is locked it is alarmed
somewhere between G4 and E7
or what I know and and how it’s different from X
a restless wish for what can’t be googled
and if so is it knowledge
or the lost keys
that apple F won’t retrieve
by Zoë Skoulding
The Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre warmly invites you to attend the opening of the exhibition Where We Begin to Look: Landscape and Poetry on Friday 11 October at 6.30pm in the Glass Tank, Abercrombie Building, Oxford Brookes University. Where We Begin to Look is a collaborative exhibition by the artist Zoe Benbow and the poet, Deryn Rees-Jones, and is presented by the Poetry Society and Small World Theatre, Ceredigion. The opening event will feature a discussion about the exhibition by Benbow and Rees-Jones, and readings by Rees-Jones and Sarah Corbett, whose work appears in the show. You can find out more on the Brookes website. If you would like to attend the opening, please reply to this message with your details. The exhibition runs until 5 November and is open to all.
‘Wingprint’ is copyright © Zoë Skoulding, 2013. It is reprinted from The Museum of Disappearing Sounds, published by Seren Books in 2013.
Notes from Seren:
Zoë Skoulding‘s previous collections of poems include Remains of a Future City (Seren, 2008), and The Mirror Trade (Seren, 2004). Her work as a poet also encompasses criticism, translation and cross-media performance; she has been involved in several projects combining poetry with music or experimental soundscape, particularly as a member of Parking Non-Stop. She lives in north Wales, where she is Senior Lecturer in the School of English at Bangor University and Editor of the international quarterly Poetry Wales. You can follow Zoë’s work via her website or on Twitter.
Seren Books (‘Seren’ means ‘star’ in Welsh) is based in Bridgend, South Wales. Originally conceived by Cary Archard and Dannie Abse as an offshoot of Poetry Wales magazine in the latter’s garage in Ogmore-by-Sea in the early 80s, under Managing Editor Mick Felton the press has gone from strength to strength and has published a wide range of titles including fiction (which under Editor Penny Thomas has seen the Booker-nominated novel by Patrick McGuinness, The Last Hundred Days, and an acclaimed novella series based on the medieval Welsh tales from the Mabinogion) and non-fiction (including literary criticism such as the new John Redmond title Poetry and Privacy, as well as sumptuous art books like the collaboration between photographer David Hurn and poet John Fuller, Writing the Picture). Seren’s poetry list, edited by Amy Wack since the early 90s, has produced T.S. Eliot Prize-nominated titles by Deryn Rees-Jones and Pascale Petit, Costa winner John Haynes, and a large list of Forward Prize winners and nominees, as well as continuing to publishing classic Welsh writers. Most recently, Seren has also added Irish and American writers to its list.
For more details about Seren, visit the publisher’s website, where there is a blog about Seren’s news and events. You can also find Seren on Facebook, on Twitter, and on YouTube, where there are videos of a number of poets reading from their work.
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.
Oxford Brookes Weekly Poems 