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After Heartease New England
After Heartease New England - Velma Pollard
After Heartease New England, for Lorna, that's Lorna Goodison.
After Heartease New England
It’s not no bird
trapped underneath no bridge
it is a soul bird
wheeling towards a springe
Lord teach wings how
in the stark silence of these evenings
in the fine chiselled rock spaces
to fold and nest
‘use me oh Lord
use even me…’
for I have heard
so faintly given
the soft/loud cry
for small/large ease
the blue note given
the bird
with swollen throat
receives and gives
the perfect yellow note
from And Caret Bay Again: New & Selected Poems (Peepal Tree Press, 2012), first published in Shame Trees Don’t Grow Here (Peepal Tree Press, 1992), © Velma Pollard 1992, used by permission of the author and the publisher.