A lovely thing

I like these, so pretty...

Halah by Mazzy Star

Well I think I see another side
Maybe just another light that shines
And I looked over now through the door
And I still belong to no one else
Maybe I hold you to blame
For all the reasons that you left
And close my eyes till I see your surprise
And you're leavin before my time
Baby won't you change your mind?

Surely don't stay long
I'm missing you now
It's like I told you
I'm over you somehow
Before I close the door
I need to hear you say goodbye
Baby won't you change your mind?

I guess that hasn't changed someone
Maybe nobody else could understand
I guess that you believed you are a woman
And that I am someone else's man
But just before I see that you leave
I want you to hold onto things that you said
Baby I wish I were dead

Surely don't stay long
I'm missing you now
It's like I told you
I'm over you somehow
Before I close the door
I need to hear you say goodbye
Baby won't you change your mind?

Sal Paradise wouldn't have got a lift from me...

On the Cautious Road....

then again, maybe he would have

Remember

That day we had got up late,
Hazy with love, your skin
White, your body long and lean.
We were two deer in a clearing
Snatching mouthfuls of grass
Eyes glancing nervously
For the hunter, aware we could,
At any moment, get caught.
Contented, love like a small sun
In our stomachs, we glowed.
Happiness is a poppy, if picked
The petals turn from ethereal
Skin to bruised flesh so
We were slow, not eager
To face September
Daylight and realities.
We slumped on the sofa
Unable to stop the connection
Hand holding, skin stroking.
The TV bleated, you flicked
Over, were you in the kitchen
Making tea when I called you?
Is this real? It was like a movie
We hadn’t brought tickets for.
We sat in silence, watching the
Second plane fly towards the tower.
People fell like flakes of snow
Away from the choking death.
The smoke and dust settled,
What was left? We didn’t know.
Nothing could bloom
In that environment.

Street by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

 
   'And the stairs were brushed and clean,
   Her shoes paired on the bottom step,
   Each tread marked with the red crescent
   Her bare heels left, fading to the faintest at the top.'

Eliza and the Bear by Eleanor Rees

Author photo © Dave Ward

If you read this blog you know I love fairy tale influenced poetry and paintings. This collection of poems by Eleanor Rees explores dreamy, fairy tale imagey, night visions and sensual desires. The images are vivid and there is a feeling of urgency and tension in her choice of words that unsettled and intrigued me.

The title poem, 'Eliza and the Bear' appealed to me immediately as I have always adored the fairy tale of Snow White and Rose Red and one of my poems is based on Rose Red and her bear lover. It could be said I am fascinated/obsessed by animal/human shapeshifting (I should be working on my dissertation on that very theme right now but instead I am writing this review...!)

Rees uses the refrain of 'I did not know my lover was a bear' to document a series of encounters and contemplations about what that entails. The wild and the domestic, the animal and human depths of love. It is a long poem with seven sections but that is very effective as it feels like an epic tale told around a campfire (with a bear snufflling in the darkness of the trees just outside the ring of light from the fire.) The poem is oustanding and my favourite in the collection. It is dramatic and darkly erotic.

“Three Bears” by Krista Huot

'I did not know my lover was a bear.
I did not know he was on all fours all night
crawling the streets looking for the wilderness.
I did not know he wanted to go
back to woods and harsh brackish skies.
I did not know he wished to go.
He never said
Sweetheart I am a bear I am leaving now.'









video of Eleanor reading 'The Changeling'



you can buy the book here...