Poem
Polly Clark
MY LIFE WITH HORSES
MY LIFE WITH HORSES
MY LIFE WITH HORSES
Before I knew there were men,I galloped a pony bareback;
it was a hard winter, but
how sure-footed we were, resolute
in frozen emptiness, stamping
the ice with our names.
Years later I lay like a foal in the grass,
wanting to touch your hair;
we clutched like shadows,
I twined the past through my fingers, kissing,
great gulps of father, of mother,
galloping, with nothing to stop me.
Now in the evening I put on my dress
like a secret; will you see
how my elbow pokes like a hock,
the way I have carefully cut my mane,
the way my eyes roll from fear of you?
I’m trying to hide the animal I am;
and you give me a necklace,
bright as a bit, and you’re
stamping your name
into the earth, and my arm
is around you, weak as a halter,
and nothing can stop me, no mother or father.
© 2000, Polly Clark
From: Kiss
Publisher: Bloodaxe, Tarset
Published with kind permission of the author and Bloodaxe.
From: Kiss
Publisher: Bloodaxe, Tarset
Polly Clark
(Canada, 1968)
Polly Clark was born in Toronto, Canada and brought up in Britain. She has published three poetry collections with Bloodaxe: Kiss (2000), Take Me With You (2005) and Farewell My Lovely (2009). Kiss was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, whereas Take Me With You was a Poetry Book Society Choice and shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize. In 1997, Clark won an Eric Gregory Award, and in 2004 the U...
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Poems of Polly Clark
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MY LIFE WITH HORSES
Before I knew there were men,I galloped a pony bareback;
it was a hard winter, but
how sure-footed we were, resolute
in frozen emptiness, stamping
the ice with our names.
Years later I lay like a foal in the grass,
wanting to touch your hair;
we clutched like shadows,
I twined the past through my fingers, kissing,
great gulps of father, of mother,
galloping, with nothing to stop me.
Now in the evening I put on my dress
like a secret; will you see
how my elbow pokes like a hock,
the way I have carefully cut my mane,
the way my eyes roll from fear of you?
I’m trying to hide the animal I am;
and you give me a necklace,
bright as a bit, and you’re
stamping your name
into the earth, and my arm
is around you, weak as a halter,
and nothing can stop me, no mother or father.
From: Kiss
Published with kind permission of the author and Bloodaxe.
MY LIFE WITH HORSES
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