‘And have you settled in?’ Thank you, Yes. Barely seen a cop at all. The food’s the best I’ve ever had, The women the most beautiful, And the city the most faithful To Alice Through the Looking Glass It’s ever been my joy to pass. One day I saw, in Chai Wan Park, An orgy … Continue reading Settling In
Category: Poems
On Kowloon Ferry
Childless myself, I couldn’t say How old they were; but when she tore Her tiny raincoat open In protest at her mother’s fussing My slow smile burst into laughter. On the night ferry from Kowloon, New Year tourists from the mainland, Two mothers, each with one daughter, Their black hair tied in pigtails, One an … Continue reading On Kowloon Ferry
Khan Younis, February 2024
‘We will wipe this thing called Hamas, ISIS-Gaza, off the face of the earth. It will cease to exist.’ — Yoav Gallant, Israel Minister of Defence At one minute and fifty-one seconds In the drone footage you’re alive, a man Walking up a hill, swinging his legs and arms With a will and intentions, and, … Continue reading Khan Younis, February 2024
Extremism
Because I do not own a rifle My loaded words must serve as bullets And when you tell me they’re not legal I’ll know exactly where to shoot it. Under the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, a statutory duty was placed on U.K. police, education, health and local authorities to prevent terrorism by identifying citizens … Continue reading Extremism
South Winds
When I met the ‘you’ of this poem in 2011 and began to write poetry again, she told me of an encounter years before when, during a period of sadness in her life, she had travelled to the north coast of Cornwall and, from a cliff top, saw a grey seal with whom she performed … Continue reading South Winds
Fight and Flight: Poems, 2012-2023
Fight and Flight: Poems 2012-2023 — 29 August, 2023 by Simon Elmer Paperback £15.00 Hardback (forthcoming) Look Inside ‘A luminescent and transporting first volume. Its range, depth and nuance — formally, thematically, cognitively and emotionally — are exceptional. It’s a work I’ll find myself returning to. And quoting!’ — Steve Venright, author of The Least … Continue reading Fight and Flight: Poems, 2012-2023
London Loves
Night, when the constellation of crane lights Rises in the West, and the thrum and hammer Of a perennially dug-up road Begins its bedtime prayers; in the glare Of diodes in car lights and council blocks, From which the orange haze of street lamps Offers something almost like relief; When the last smokers from the … Continue reading London Loves
The Burial of the Dead
for Linden Brough Fear in the figures on a TV-screen, In the mouths of liars paid to deceive; Fear in a handful of dust was enough To bring a fearful nation to its knees. Though I do not see the world in colour, In the night I see clearer than you — Mewed the cat … Continue reading The Burial of the Dead
The Cantref of Pebidiog
I am a man, upo da land, I am a selkie i da sea. 1 How far have you come? she asked when we arrived. As far as it’s possible to go, I sighed, And from what feels like another country. And to all her other questions I replied: Like a lizard crawling out of … Continue reading The Cantref of Pebidiog
Freedom Day
Nor did I deem your decrees so strong That you, a mortal man, could overturn The gods’ unwritten and unfailing laws. — Sophocles, Antigone, c. 441 B.C. Back again, but for how long In this brief respite from incarceration? Air and sea now banned to us By an Iron Curtain of regulations, Locked in a … Continue reading Freedom Day
Simon Elmer 