Poem
Steve Ely
MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL
MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL
MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL
Little John’s Well at Stubbs dried upas limestone quarrying behind the scarp
progressively destroyed the water table.
Dry years, as earth-locked rain burrowed
and bored in the bones of Barnsdale, before breaking
to the light in a winter-wheat field,
east of the Ea Beck bridge. Soon, rags were tied
to streamside trees and silver sown
in the muck’s bright mirror. An underground
tradition, like midrash or the cult of saints,
bubbling forth like a rolling boil:
one harrowing hell with the corpse
of Moses, under the guns of Randi
and Dawkins, the canons of the Church.
© 2014, Steve Ely
From: Oswald\'s Book of Hours
Publisher: Smokestack Books, Middlesbrough
From: Oswald\'s Book of Hours
Publisher: Smokestack Books, Middlesbrough
Steve Ely
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1965)
Steve Ely is one of the most exhilarating poets currently working in the UK and is just, at the time of writing, becoming well-known. Oswald’s Book of Hours deals with a sense of Englishness – specifically, northernness – exemplified by the events of a thousand years. Written in rich, textured, idiosyncratic English, the book was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection (2013...
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MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL
Little John’s Well at Stubbs dried upas limestone quarrying behind the scarp
progressively destroyed the water table.
Dry years, as earth-locked rain burrowed
and bored in the bones of Barnsdale, before breaking
to the light in a winter-wheat field,
east of the Ea Beck bridge. Soon, rags were tied
to streamside trees and silver sown
in the muck’s bright mirror. An underground
tradition, like midrash or the cult of saints,
bubbling forth like a rolling boil:
one harrowing hell with the corpse
of Moses, under the guns of Randi
and Dawkins, the canons of the Church.
From: Oswald\'s Book of Hours
MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL
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