Sarah James

RELIANCE / RELEVANCE

' "undersong" - the underlying sounds of a landscape;
the ambient murmur of an environment, often hard to hear or tune in to.’
Robert Macfarlane, twitter, 6 June 2017

i) strange kind of reliance

at the well’s open mouth
a licking of lichen,
leaves the mind might liken
to green tongues,
placing a great weight
on sight and speech

the listening line listens
to the edge
where plant meets stone,
brick, even discarded wrappers;
it’s softer
than expectation

yes, there is a hole,
rain and river
will gently fill it
without need
to force out sound
or pour in false meanings

water gathers,
roots grow,
the wind ‘uː aʊ’s
from time to time;
it might take years
for chains to break,

but we’ve drunk enough
to let this bucket rust,
admire instead
the quiet with which
both earth and water
reclaim such wood and metal

they’ll turn it all
to something newer, stronger
longer-lasting –
reshape even
our plastic fragments
where they can

ii) strange kind of rel-ev-ance

at th well’s o pen mouth
alicking of lichen,
leaves th mind might liken to

green tongues,
on sight over sound ten to the line,
to that edge

planthardenstostone
           sto ne crum bles withplant
on ly sof ter

           there s no hole
rain n river fall
               flow seep
fr m time      t time;
                            years
           break

we’ve drunk e nough
t let this bucket rust
           reclaim

           turnitall
                     t newer
reshape                     ourwhere

to hold a world steady

an invisible peak door
                    opens / into slow sky
high above beaklow moor

the green of valley grass
           is a threshold tumbling
from mist and cloud clasps

glossop’s a scattering of thrown
                    pebbles / roofs patterned
as stepping stones / roads

reduced to track / rocky climbs
           softened to gentle slopes
– the horizon’s time-

less stage suspended
                    as if from fly-loft
rigging / intended

to hold all within a stride…
                                but not quite;
the world’s clear outline

                                is nothing wires could steady
                    only physics and fair weather
between this / and slippingunder

Sarah James's latest collections are plenty-fish (Nine Arches Press 2015) and The Magnetic Diaries (Knives, Forks and Spoons Press 2015), which was highly commended in that year’s Forward Prizes. Her poetry-play version was a Highly Recommended Show at Edinburgh Fringe 2016. A short novella Kaleidoscope was published by Mantle Lane Press in 2017. Her work appeared previously in Molly Bloom 9.