<\/p>\n
Two poems by the first-prize winner of the 2014 Flambard Poetry Prize, Alice Allen:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sometimes in a dream<\/span><\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sometimes in a dream I forget you are dead<\/p>\n and I think, in the dream, I haven\u2019t phoned you<\/p>\n for ages, I\u2019ll give you a call now, have a chat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And I\u2019m so excited, in the dream, about speaking<\/p>\n to you, picking up the old phone and dialling,<\/p>\n excited to hear you again, your voice<\/p>\n <\/p>\n in my dream, close to my chest, holding<\/p>\n your voice, in my dream, in my breath<\/p>\n holding the grief in my chest because<\/p>\n <\/p>\n it is not the heart that feels this love or loss<\/p>\n but the lungs inflamed, meanwhile<\/p>\n the heart is busy measuring, decanting<\/p>\n <\/p>\n moving on, and I stand here and think of you<\/p>\n and hold my breath and feel the loss of you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Conversations with my Grandmother<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sometimes an owl flies by the house at night<\/em><\/p>\n she says, circling the air in front of her<\/p>\n to indicate his size.<\/p>\n I think of him flying low and deep<\/p>\n as through a warp in the warm night<\/p>\n a gift of elsewhere in his wingspan.<\/p>\n He lands on the roof while we sleep.<\/p>\n Overlapping feathers pattern the dark \u2013<\/p>\n I hold the thought of him<\/p>\n up to the broken scales of the house<\/p>\n like a benediction.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The roof is the lid and the lip<\/p>\n of the house. Bats, she tells me<\/p>\n hide by day in the corners of the attic<\/p>\n their sweet faces wouldn\u2019t hurt you<\/em><\/p>\n and field mice break the seal under the eaves<\/p>\n their bodies fast as rain<\/p>\n and wasps in summer<\/p>\n working away at the roof\u2019s rim<\/p>\n building their cone of paper.<\/p>\n The droppings and dust<\/p>\n hair balls and skin<\/p>\n bone-flakes and shreds<\/p>\n these creatures leave in their passing.<\/p>\n If an owl flies into your room at night<\/em><\/p>\n and sits dead still on your washstand<\/em><\/p>\n cover him with a towel<\/em><\/p>\n and help him out of the window.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Wind blows through the rooms<\/p>\n like an interrogation.<\/p>\n Yes, the house is old.<\/p>\n The path is receding.<\/p>\n The fields escape from their edges.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Unaware of Bede\u2019s fleeting sparrow<\/p>\n she tells me of the time an owl<\/p>\n flew through the window of the long room<\/p>\n another window open at the end<\/p>\n thinking the room was just<\/p>\n a different part of his night<\/p>\n a passage between the trees.<\/p>\n Two poems by the first-prize winner of the 2014 Flambard Poetry Prize, Alice Allen: Sometimes in a dream Sometimes in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[425,422],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1822"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1824,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822\/revisions\/1824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}