I’m delighted to have some of my work featured as Black Bough Poetry’s Poet of the Month in the Silver Branch Series.

The series is curated by Matthew M.C. Smith, poet, and editor of Black Bough Poetry, a project which promotes imagist micro-poetry.

Silver Branch showcases the work of a poet whose poems have appeared in a Black Bough Poetry publication. In my case:

Moon, Landing – Black Bough – Issue 2 (Apollo 11 edition)

Thaw & Quite All Right, Thank You – Deep Time (volume2)

Freedom  in the imminent Freedom / Rapture issue

Alongside these are 5 other poems. Plus a pair of poems – Triptych and Three Stones – inspired by images: respectively, a painting by Matthias Grünewald and three photographs by the writer and photographer, Phil Cope.

The photograph that heads this post is Winter Branch © Phil Cope. The magical Silver Branch of Celtic story ensures entry to the Otherworld. It’s something both natural and wrought, like a poem.

THERE AND HERE

in a dream, the mirror of the Trinity

Our mirror holds your image in its square

and we have made the frame, a hand-breadth wide.

From the mid-point of the base springs a pair

of vibrant, scrolling fronds, one either side;

carved in relief, acanthus-leafed, baroque,

flexing like seaweed in a rising tide

they cross the top as though to interlock

but stop just short – potential growth implied.

The wood is light, clean-edged, northern and spare,

fit for an airy room with snow outside;

a place for thinking clearly in; somewhere

to find a balance, ponder, or decide.

Look. See your true self here, the self we share;

your I, You, Us.  Be its reflection there.

New City magazine, November 2020