Jessica Aspinall

I completely missed what you just said because I was thinking about how much I love you

the words flew by me as I was lost in the movement of your smile

the shine of your eyes as joy filled your spirit
and passion bursts from your barely kept scenes

this is everything – this moment

I am underwater

my heart has filled

you are my cosy blanket – with warm cup of tea – yet also the fizz in my Vimto – the pop in my candy

you are the air that lifts me – and the soil between my toes

you see me completely – dark and light

and you accept and love me for everything I am

I’ve shown you darkness and you did not run

I’m so excited to show you the rest of me

I’m petrified of you

you hold my naked being in your easily clenched palm

empowered by vulnerability only goes so far

the flames keep growing – and I’m scared I’ll get burned, but I have decided

for as long as you hold my heart sacred

I am worth the risk of you.

Reading: Ian Antonio Patterson 26.12.2024

WH Auden

As I walked out one evening,
Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river
I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
“Love has no ending.

“I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,

“I’ll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.

“The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.”

But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
“O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.

“In the burrows of the Nightmare
Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
And coughs when you would kiss.

“In headaches and in worry
Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
To-morrow or to-day.

“Into many a green valley
Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
And the diver’s brilliant bow.

“O plunge your hands in water,
Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
And wonder what you’ve missed.

“The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.

“Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer,
And Jill goes down on her back.

“O look, look in the mirror?
O look in your distress:
Life remains a blessing
Although you cannot bless.

“O stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
With your crooked heart.”

It was late, late in the evening,
The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
And the deep river ran on.

Reading: Ian Antonio Patterson 26.12.2024