Judith Bishop
Judith Bishop’s Interval appears just over a decade since the publication of her first book, also using a one-word title, Event (Salt, 2007). This gap seems far too long. Certainly, there have been two chapbooks in the intervening years – Alice Missing in Wonderland and Other Poems (2008), in the Wagtail series ...
... (read more)Bold shades of autumn leaf – or blazing embers’ light,
bright to extinguished, as if fires set
in hearths huddled closely in the dirt were offset
by pallid oceans with their artificial light.
Are the colours fire-signals to a planetary eye
that, like Atlas, feels the weight of earth,
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 ...
2006 Porter Prize winner: 'Still Life with Cockles and Shells' by Judith Bishop
(Italian, c.17th; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)
Life breathes in this painting like a child
pretending not to be awake,
or a skink metamorphosed to a stone
but for the flutter in its flank.
You have to lean and listen for the heart
behind the shining paint,
the lips half-open, and the glittering eye.
Velvet of the night. A ba ...
You are seething; I am worried.
We have read the Greek myths.
This anger of yours feels like
a distant thunderclap
Night’s the ground beneath my feet
since I learned to walk with you.
Scented guide with birds and flowers on your breath,