The Glosters Return by Patrick Williamson

Photo by Dino Ignani

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

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