James Trevelyan (Poetry School)We’ll be spending the next month or so discovering the work of the Primers shortlist – the ten poets in the running for our mentoring and publication scheme with Nine Arches Press.
So far we’ve seen poems from Geraldine Clarkson and Jo Young, and next up is…
Kate Davis is from Barrow-in-Furness, where the A590 slews to a halt at the edge of the Irish Sea. Her poems have been published, printed on shopping bags, implanted in benches, sung and remixed. In 2013 she received a Northern Writers Award.
How the forgetting began
Things she knew –
the train trip to the sea-side
the boating pool brimming green
the moment her mother’s back was turned
the rubber sea-weed on the pool wall
the rotting cabbage feel of it as she scrabbled over
The thing she didn’t know –
the sea hid a waiting gob of virus
Things she knew –
the sea’s hard slap on the fleet of little peeling hulls
the shocking intransigent of small boats
The thing she didn’t know –
the virus intended to get to the core of her spine
Things she knew –
the lumpy face of the boatman
the opening and closing of his immense mouth
The thing she didn’t know –
the virus in her spine would bring a terrible dream of heat
Things she knew –
the squeeze of deeper water
the sea creeping green past her hips
The thing she didn’t know –
the start of the dream would be the start of the forgetting
Things she knew –
the distance between her and her mother
the smallness of her mother
the snag
the slip
the sea closing green over her head
the green taste of sea in her mouth
the salt
the salt on her lips.
Stay tuned for features on all the shortlisted poets over the coming weeks, and find out the full Primers shortlist here.
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