Shearsman 62: Frances Presley: "Windcorner"

Shearsman 62

Frances Presley

Windcorner

near St Hildegard's abbey

In Moment
in the moment's process
scrape

white butterfly black dots
dat dhat da

rummage scabious
purple clover
hemming by summerhouses

all night
an undercurrent
of bells
overcurrent of birds

I'm going inside my body
sometimes there's nothing
but Genglisch
the gentle pressure of an entire landscape
on the left of my head
it's clearing
yolky

the river moves its houses
for and against
ingenious metaphor

a bird of prey
flies up
between the vines
we are flying towards each other

this is the head

these are the wings she was thinking of

the wings in the drawing
— the ardour of God

Frances Presley's latest collection is the excellent Paravane. New and Selected Poems from Salt Publishing, Cambridge (2004). She lives in London and is a member of the editorial board of How2.