Poems
Rags of snow unmelting on the southern lawn.
Those younger ones, whose death turns
on the hair’s-breadth incidence of accident,
avoid this perduration of slow misrecognition.
The far city must make itself known
even here in the sitting room and
barred by winter branches. The skyline
The far city must make itself known
even here in the sitting room and
barred by winter branches. The skyline ...
His feet were stubborn
on the frozen path.
He put it into His hand, then ...
Miracles are not like tempests.
Furlongs are not like hedgerows
though they come close ...
As I combed it,
he sat cross-legged
in front of me ...
We tread the wood in J. Crew,
pluck grey seersucker and navy cashmere
and talk about dressing for the seasons ...
Just knowing those colours makes it safer
already and how they'll change anyway by the time
you, thirteen now, are old enough for elsewhere: ...
The dead gaze back across their special days:
cloud above clover, crisis above the crow ...
Such new horizons, yet they still approach. ...
Set in the modern day, Satan Repentant is a book-length poem about revenge, resentment, and remorse, telling a new myth of what would happen if Satan tried to apologise and atone for all his crimes. Through that story, it explores ideas of power, of authority to judge right and wrong, and the dignity and shame that can be attached to admitting fault or insi ...
