Philip Gross, past winner of the T S Eliot Prize, finds poetry in motion in the athletic manoeuvres of a young skate-boarder. The poem comes from his latest collection, A Bright Acoustic (Bloodaxe Books, £9.95).
A CADENCE:
the slack-jointed run
of the young skateboarder off
~
the precinct ramp, with a kick
~
to mount the kerb, along/atop
a low wall, barely slowing -
~
eyes down, not so much on his feet
~
as in his body, more haste in the flapping
of his loose tee, or his bum-hung britches
~
than the slow long stoop and push
~
of each pulse of his glide
to an inch from the drop
~
where the wall ends; with barely a twitch
he’s tripped up the board-tip
so it spins free, him
~
in mid stride now without it, to land
~
as it offers itself to his hand
just snug to deal on
~
to the pavement where his next
~
step delivers them
together, a descending
~
grace-note, to the theme. . .
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