The Poetry Kit

HOME     POETRY KIT COURSES     SUBMISSIONS    CITN     NEWSLETTER     BOOKSHOP     BLOG

 

POETRY IN THE PLAGUE YEAR

Poems written during the Coronavirus Outbreak 2020

How to submit   -  Back to Contents

 

 

Martyn Halsall

Santon Bridge, Cumbria.

 

 

Martyn Halsall grew up in Southport, then in Lancashire, and was a student in Chelsea before entering journalism.  After writing for local and regional newspapers he joined The Guardian in Manchester, covering religious affairs, then industry across the North of England.

He is completing his sixth poetry pamphlet, Passing Place, and his second full collection, Visible Music, about experiencing cancer.  He writes about poetry for the Church Times, and new work is appearing in Nine Muses Press, Honest Ulsterman and Theology.

 

Poem completed April 20, 2020.

 

 

Canvas

 

Stamped Made in China, one pound, now aged grey,

the canvas shoulder bag; frayed flap to stow

cameras when they needed lenses, and squat black

pill box cannisters for extra film.

 

Hangs empty, now; dead weight of shoulder sag,

stubble of rust pitting its metal latches;

badges campaign for yesterday’s headline causes:

Coal not Dole; motif for women bishops.

 

Inside a cotton pocket for trace and memory

same size as a folded map, where an island’s holed

by being opened in wind to check a trackway:

South Skye and Cuillin Hills, Lewis, Benbecula.

 

Holding space for a pen wood-turned from yew tree,

present of a notebook from the Islay ferry;

old toffee wrapper from the local factory

we smelled in seaside childhood before rain came.

 

Space also for souvenirs; small change from walking:

knuckle of pink granite, sprig of miners’ lamps

from a passing whin, ankle bone of beech for kindling,

peat thumbprint on that page noting the owl,

 

and what’s no longer carried, that black light meter

with its stallion scent when you clicked back leather cover

to read dew on leaf’s close-up, or a dale’s distance;

aperture and speed you’d need to catch that moment.