"this is sixth form poetry, not Keats or Yeats"
You prowl and sniff the air around your pack, With outsized ears you wear just like a crown Atop a cloak of matted, mottled brown; The silence summons heckles on your back. You take the centre stage for your attack, And outline plans to raid the nearest town; You prowl and sniff the air … Read more
Sunbeams two-step over white blankets Gliding painlessly between worlds, Then stray too close to the edge Where looming Arctic waves Trap their latent heat; Ending the dance, And leaving Only Sea. This is a nonet, inspired by recent research that has provided the first quantitative evidence for the “albedo feedback” effect in the Arctic. It … Read more
Balanced on a rock Orange sneezeweed in your mouth; You drop in the heat. This is a Haiku, inspired by recent research which has found climate change responsible for the local extinction of the American pika from California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. The American pika is a small mammal adapted to high altitudes and cold temperatures, … Read more
Running in dread from the The sickly secret of a Bee’s honeycomb, My nightmares are full of Buttered English muffins That morph into Deathstalker scorpions, And then back again into fields of cooked Corn on the cob. From the corner of my eye I see the Condensation on the inside of a bottle And I … Read more
Across white fields of mounting snow You sense the winds begin to slow, Then feel them bite into your side; Your ashen snout will be your guide Amongst the zephyr’s gentle flow. You glide along because you know That in the distance far below A ringed seal has been supplied — Across white fields… … Read more
Vessels Running beneath my skin – Like the network Of a tightly-knit Urban sprawl. All closely ravelled together – A well-trod map to my Heart. But too complex to build Or print. Our greatest Artificial cartographers cannot reconstruct The interlacing web of hidden alleyways And ginnels lurking beneath the surface. So instead we turn to nature; … Read more
Dappled silhouettes amongst the trees – A lost memory of verdant lands. Your fragmented impressions Have disappeared from view; All that remains is An empty shell Which one day Too will Fade. This is a nonet, inspired by recent research that has succeeded in comparing the movement and space use of jaguars across five different … Read more
The bees effervescently Secreted sweet scents. They smelt smelly feet Then went wherever The sweetest smells went. They neglected the less Sweet smells, Seeded the scene, Then entered the nest. This is a univocalic poem (using only the ’e’ vowel) inspired by recent research that has investigated the extent to which bumblebees can identify markers … Read more
Split into two, I glisten in the shallow shore. Split into two; A bitter taste of déjà vu. You guard me with a tender claw, Before deciding I’m worth more Split into two. This is a Rondelet, inspired by recent research that investigates the relationship between the Lybia crab and a sea anemone species belonging … Read more
The gossamer of human life Sways gently in a passing breeze. A whisper on a callous knife – The gossamer of human life. You take away the sting of strife, With artificial growth to please. The gossamer of human life Sways gently in a passing breeze. This is a Triolet, inspired by recent research into … Read more