Michael Newman revisits a Grimmett

In a recent letter to Poet-in-Residence the Cotswold poet Michael Newman wrote - it is difficult in this consumer age to write poetry that stands apart...I am not so much interested in 'isms' and 'wasms' as speaking what I perceive to be the poetic truth. If only more poets would adopt Michael Newman's philosophy! The world's bookshelves are unfortunately groaning with 'isms' and 'wasms'
Poet-in-Residence readers will be familiar with the work of Michael Newman. There's a wonderful poem on Poet-in-Residence about the Grimmett family photograph (scroll sidebar). In 'Distances', published in the March 2006 edition of the Ligden Poetry Society's journal Pulsar Michael Newman encounters Edwin Grimmett once more - this time somewhere in the Cotswold landscape.


Distances

From the hill's litany of stone,
The wind commands respect,
And intones a mantra
Only the farmworker understands.

Today, that man is Edwin Grimmett,
Back sickle-bent with (too much) ditching,
His face a brazier fuelled
By mulled cider.

*

Did I betray you, Edwin,
When I broke your bread
Among the townsfolk and commuters?

They can admire
From the safety of service station,
Or arrive noisily en masse
In a ramblers' coach.

But you alone are the stained glass
At the entrance of the forest,
On which the figures of history
Are played out.

c)- Michael Newman 2006

The Ligden Poetry Society will be holding a Live Microphone Session on Wednesday the 12th March 2008 commencing 8:00pm at The Goddard Arms, Clyffe Pypard, near Broad Hinton. YOU are invited! Visit the Pulsar website (see P-i-R's links) for more details.