Wordview 2020: Avalon

by Nicholas McGaughey

This is a poem about being with someone as they die. The loved ones hold her hands as she drifts away, we "untether our palms and let her go"

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Wordview 2020: Avalon

This boat on the shore

has no sail or paddle,

I have not seen it before.

It seems to be waiting

We are four. Then three.

Hands touch cold rock.

Her eyes open, don’t see

our vigil turn ceremony.

Breath slows to the calm

of no breeze, not a ripple

stirs the surface. Our palms

untether. We let her go.

Recording provided as part of Poetry Archive Now: Wordview 2020. Used by permission of the author. Photographer taken by Rob Summerhill.

Wordview 2020 Winners

Welcome to the Poetry Archive Now! WordView 2020 Collection. For the first time the Archive opened its doors wide to poets from around ...

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Nicholas McGaughey

Nicholas is a Literature Wales Mentee. He has new work in Poetry Wales/Atrium/Dust/The Island Review/Ink Sweat and Tears/The Atlanta Review/Gwyllion Magazine and the anthology “Beyond The Storm”

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A special thank you to everyone who entered this competition

Chair of the Judging Panel, Imtiaz Dharker, says: “The hundreds of entries we received blew in to the Archive like a breath of pure, unpolluted air from all over the world, revealing something of the time we are living in, some telling it straight, some slant. It was exciting to check in to the Poetry Archive’s Youtube channel every morning and come upon one unexpected voice after another."

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