Poem
Peter Riley
Pyrenean
Pyrenean
Pyrenean
The little valley in the foothillstall birches and twisting stream
snowy crests beyond in sunlight
a marten runs across the road
first thin cherry blossom in the fields
a bell-tower at the crest of each village.
Later sitting on the station platform very cold
suffering pain from an oesophagal hernia
surveying the council houses beyond the track
so like home.
Cathar country, how people survive
or don’t and leave a trace in the mind
that survives through centuries, a trace
of defiance, that the world is open, a blue book
wrapped in wool, clutched to the chest
over high and snowy passes.
© 2007, Peter Riley
From: The Day\'s Final Balance: Uncollected Writings 1965-2006
Publisher: Shearsman Books, Exeter
From: The Day\'s Final Balance: Uncollected Writings 1965-2006
Publisher: Shearsman Books, Exeter
Peter Riley
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1940)
Peter Riley must now count as one of our ‘senior poets’, with a large back-catalogue of publications, but he occupies a strange position in contemporary English letters, due in no small part to the sheer range of his work. In some respects, this range, and his interests, rule him out of contention for a number of critics, and it would be fair to say that he probably annoys as many critics from ...
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Pyrenean
The little valley in the foothillstall birches and twisting stream
snowy crests beyond in sunlight
a marten runs across the road
first thin cherry blossom in the fields
a bell-tower at the crest of each village.
Later sitting on the station platform very cold
suffering pain from an oesophagal hernia
surveying the council houses beyond the track
so like home.
Cathar country, how people survive
or don’t and leave a trace in the mind
that survives through centuries, a trace
of defiance, that the world is open, a blue book
wrapped in wool, clutched to the chest
over high and snowy passes.
From: The Day\'s Final Balance: Uncollected Writings 1965-2006
Pyrenean
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