Thirteen Ways of Looking At Stone by Sue Burge

 

 


 

Sue Burge is a freelance creative writing and film studies tutor based in North Norfolk.  Her poems have appeared in a wide range of magazines and anthologies.  Sue’s first collection In the Kingdom of Shadows (Live Canon) was published in November 2018 alongside her debut pamphlet Lumiere (Hedgehog Poetry Press).  Sue’s new pamphlet, The Saltwater Diaries, is forthcoming, also with Hedgehog Poetry Press, in September 2020. More information at

www.sueburge.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thirteen Ways of Looking At Stone 

 

after Wallace Stevens

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i

rest your cheek in its lee

where the night cannot find you

 

ii

carve your face in the soft mountainside

watch your nose crumble

your eyes & mouth become dust

 

iii

the art of skimming

unachievable as an equation

the pebble lies on my palm

 

iv

I left a trail of pebbles long ago –

did you collect them

build the tallest cairn?

 

v

outline my body where it falls

lay me under a blanket of shale

 

vi

how did you carry those tablets of stone

down the steep, treacherous path?

Did you pause, unwrap food

from linen folds, take a sinful bite?

 

vii

the road to hell is paved with gravel –

it will find its way

into the most tightly laced shoe

 

viii

I wake from a dream

of blood and chanting

the taste of standing stone

 

ix

I weigh my poems down

with a hagstone –

a life lived slant

 

x

in a cabinet

a piece of moon

jagged & dark

one day I will steal it

inhale its pale heart

 

xi

sometimes I lift a mirror to you

afraid of your Gorgon stare

 

xii

is stone still warm without my touch?

does it erode

only when my back is turned?

 

xiii

torn from the earth’s belly

newborn

 

 

Sue Burge

 

  

 

 

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