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Shearsman 56 |
Peter Redgrove
Mistress Shivers |
The spinet declares
the waters shall be healed
and be full of fish
Like gardens of flowers
as the flow-er plays
and the moths shall carry
All leprosies away on their backs
on their scaly backs
with formal magnitude.
We love among the shrubs
greeting friends
to the music of spinets
Among the notes that fly
as the insects do
into the shrubs
Who are our friends
at this garden party all dressed up,
humans
In floral prints among the flowers
invisible among their friends as spirits
gathering their perfumes
Under spreading skirts
to the music of spinets
how easily is a bush
Supposed a broad in clouds of perfume
broadcast like spinet music
pleasured from the flowers
By bees tripletonguing each instrument
invisibly;
is that pink-blossomed tree
Shuddering off clouds of its perfume, Mary,
or an Artemisia swived
By attendant bees
as Mistress Shivers pleasures the spinet
on spinal keyboards,
Creature of scent and electricity
in her floral gown
and symphonies of shudder.
Copyright © the estate of Peter Redgrove, 2003
| Peter
Redgrove was
born in 1932 and lived in Cornwall from the mid-1960s. One
of the most consistently remarkable English poets of the post-war
period, he was the author of over thirty verse collections
and ten works of fiction, as well as plays and works of non-fiction.
His collections include Selected
Poems (Cape, London, 1999). and From
the Virgil Caverns (Cape,
2002). He died on 16 June 2003. A posthumous collection Sheen (166pp, £10)
appears from Stride in October 2003, and a tribute volume, Full
of Stars Dreaming (54pp, £5.95)
appears from the same publisher in October 2003. Both books
can be ordered, post-free, from the publisher at
11 Sylvan Road, Exeter EX4 6EW. |
