Poem
Greta Stoddart
Skull and Hourglass
Skull and Hourglass
Skull and Hourglass
Hold them there inside that golden room,their faces flushed, their bellies full of food
and that girl’s, surely – look at her smile – with love,
settling its milky pool in some pelvic nook;
hold that man, hale and loud, laughing
down the cleavage of some woman not his wife
whose small black eyes look out at us as if
we might know to keep the secret of her life.
Hold them there before
the old sorrow creeps in
over the bleared plates and sticky rims,
the ruched, exhausted cloth, before the night
has lost all it promised at dusk when the swans
shone their loneliness out on the black lake.
© 2014, Greta Stoddart
Greta Stoddart
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1966)
Greta Stoddart is a subtle, surprising poet whose work seems to hinge on those moments when everything might just change. Her first book came out in 2001 and established her reputation, with its beautifully sensual, uncomfortable poems about relationships, sexuality and the interior life. In 2005 she was named in Mslexia magazine’s list of the top ten contemporary women poets. She trained in th...
Poems
Poems of Greta Stoddart
Close
Skull and Hourglass
Hold them there inside that golden room,their faces flushed, their bellies full of food
and that girl’s, surely – look at her smile – with love,
settling its milky pool in some pelvic nook;
hold that man, hale and loud, laughing
down the cleavage of some woman not his wife
whose small black eyes look out at us as if
we might know to keep the secret of her life.
Hold them there before
the old sorrow creeps in
over the bleared plates and sticky rims,
the ruched, exhausted cloth, before the night
has lost all it promised at dusk when the swans
shone their loneliness out on the black lake.
Skull and Hourglass
Sponsors
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère