Stewart Carswell is from the Forest of Dean. He currently lives and works and writes in Cambridge. His poems have recently been published in Envoi, Lighthouse, and Ink Sweat & Tears, and included in Best New British and Irish Poets 2016. His debut pamphlet, Knots and branches, is published by Eyewear.
http://stewartcarswell.wordpress.com
The clearing
Each clearing opens with a death:
a great oak stumped by a gale.
Jagged splinters
jutting up from the base,
the rest of the trunk
lying down in the space
between two neighbours. Bow down
at its end.
A spotlight
directed through the new gap in the canopy
illuminates this clearing. Watch this
dying scene. It’s important to know
how light is cast. The collapse,
the breakdown made this happen. I’m sorry
it had to be you.
Stewart Carswell
