Jo Dixonafter Kathleen Jamie and Friedrich Hölderlin
in your weaving
grant me sight
just once
of it skimming the slow-flowing river
lightning-blue mantle nape to tail
in your weaving
grant me sight
just once
of it poised above the slow-flowing river
copper feathers belly to breast
in your weaving
grant me sight
just once
vertebrae leaning into corrugated bark
in the margins of the slow-flowing river
my weaving
eyes pressing into unearthed roots
on the far side of the slow-flowing river
my weaving
being where the ranger told me I should be
doing what the ranger told me I should do
my weaving
grants me sight
Jo Dixon is a graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at Nottingham Trent University and a practice-led PhD candidate at the same institution. Her poems have appeared in New Walk, The Interpreter’s House and Furies: A Poetry Anthology of Women Warriors (For Books’ Sake). In April 2016, her poem ‘Skegness Wake’ was commended in the Writing East Midlands inaugural poetry competition. Her debut poetry pamphlet, A Woman in the Queue, was published by Melos Press in May 2016.
“This poem was written in response to an assignment on spells, wishes and offerings set by Miriam Nash in the Folklore Studio. Miriam suggested that a poem might have the power to make something happen! At the same time, I was re-reading Kathleen Jamie’s collection The Overhaul. The two events collided and a petition to the Fates was created.”
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