Patrick Williamson lives near Paris, France. His latest collections are: Beneficato (English-Italian, Samuele Editore, 2015), Hold your tongue (Harmattan, 2014), Gifted (Corrupt Press, 2014), and Nel Santuario (Samuele Editore, 2013; Menzione speciale della Giuria in the XV Concorso Guido Gozzano, 2014). He is the editor and translator of The Parley Tree, An Anthology of Poets from French-speaking Africa and the Arab World (Arc Publications, 2012), and translated notably Tahar Bekri, Gilles Cyr, Guido Cupani and Erri de Luca.
The Glosters Return
You are a lucky man, daffodils sprawl your drive
buds sticky on the trees and the seed at last
sprouts into green, resurgence begins from ground
frozen hard by the long winter; the grass needs mowing
fish to turn black to gold, river pondweed yet
to grow, and grow old, sun streams and days are blessed.
It is wealth encrusted, walking once again
that muddy track spatted with cowpats
and pig smell, pools of truth, cool whishing
of grasses, this earth, with dewstrewn fertile fields
in memory restored. Slumber sweet roses,
hide from the starling chatter; so stand still,
blend in with the brilliance of a stream.
Nothing is so splendid, you mutter, than to cry
walk, walk to the warrior’s limbs
as they fumble with the twilight, then dusk.
Patrick Williamson