In The Poetry

The next poem reflects on the relationship between body and the world – if you like, the border between the body and the world and it contains the word ‘anti-bubble’. Now very simply an anti-bubble is the reverse of a normal bubble in that it’s a drop of liquid surrounded by a skin of air [...]

This poem is called ‘Hairless’ and it celebrates being bald.

Hairless

Can the bald lie? The nature of the skin says not:
it’s newborn-pale, erection-tender stuff,
every thought visible, – pure knowledge,
mind in action – shining through the skull.
I saw a woman, hairless absolute, cleaning.
She mopped the green floor, dusted bokshelves,
all cloth and concentration, Queen of the room.
You can [...]

I spent some time working with the choreographer, Sue McLennan, and her dancers and I began to think of the intelligence within dance, within the body. And in this poem I imagine the most famous of all dancers speaking about physics which she feels and apprehends through her body.

Pavlova’s Physics

Everything in my body
has been [...]

I discovered a little cul-de-sac of literature which is devoted to the art of peeing. Most of it’s written by men and most of it celebrates that marvellous golden arc that they can perform in the sky which of course I can’t – so I felt a bit left out and if you like this [...]

The next poem reflects on the relationship between body and the world – if you like, the border between the body and the world and it contains the word ‘anti-bubble’. Now very simply an anti-bubble is the reverse of a normal bubble in that it’s a drop of liquid surrounded by a skin of air [...]