|
|
FOOL FOR POETRY
ONLINE BOOKSTORE FEATURED TITLES
New Irish Voices
Liberty Walks Naked
Richesses: Francophone Songwriter Poets
Munster Literature Centre
|
|
Mark Fiddes lives in South London and, therefore, spends most of his life on the Northern Line. Having studied philosophy, he has worked in Washington, D.C. as a journalist and around the world as a creative director. Last year, he was a finalist in the National Poetry Competition, runner up in the Fish Publishing International Flash Fiction Competition and shortlisted in the Lightship International Fiction Competition. Follow him on Twitter @fiddesmark .
Highly Commended in the Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Competition
The Lost Gardens of West Norwood
Spring has not been a great success In the claylands of South London Now daubed in dog shit fauvre And splashes of sepsis yellow May’s the cruellest month on record Even the crows have lost interest
“We are now approaching Balham” The recording announces Without sympathy or respect Weary sheds and flailing trellis Early cabbage and sacks of woe Spilling bottles to Streatham Hill Where late commuters goggle eyed Wait outraged as stranded salmon
The lost gardens of West Norwood Buried many Edens deep in A conspiracy of ivy Yield the flotsam of summers past Plastic chairs and cricket bats The slow rusting barbeque That carbon dates the happiness Of a long divorced family
In the drizzle of Gypsy Hill Pale mansions damp with memory Dissolve gently as pain-killers Into the moss-choked guttering We shunt on to Crystal Palace Twinned with Melancholia A murder scene with brick arches And ornamental dinosaurs
Behind the sweating café glass A man holds his lover closer Than a cello, breathing her hair For the first bowed note of summer While on we roll to London Bridge Their kiss blooming deep within us
©2013 Mark Fiddes
Judge's Statement
This is a rare and excellent railway poem, reminiscent of the giant work by Philip Larkin, echoed very cleverly in the kissing couple, their embrace ‘blooming deep within us.’ But instead of the water meadows of Lincolnshire we have ‘the claylands of South London’. The formal verse structure, the relentless movement towards Crystal Palace that contains love behind glass, creates a terrific sense of movement and control.
Author Links
Wall Flower Power: Mark Fiddes's poetry blog Fish Anthology 2012 containing flash fiction by Mark Fiddes Lightship Anthology containing a story by Mark Fiddes
|
|||||||
©2009 Southword Editions and Munster Literature Centre |
|
||||||||||
