These three poems all use form in a significant way to say something about the coming together, the partnership and eventual singularity of relationships. Gillian Nash’s poem reads almost as a foreshortened sonnet (a popular form for love poetry but denied us for this ten-line challenge!); its effortless gentle rhymes express intimacy before the moving final couplet, all the more painful for its employment of simple and direct language. David Ferguson plays with chemical imagery, suggesting fusion in love, before the briefest allusion to life’s, and therefore love’s, impermanence. Penelope Cutler’s paired lines illustrate that sense of a shared experience being twice as rich, and leaves the reader with a feeling that love can emanate an energy experienced by the natural, as well as the human, world.
Bittersweet
I didn’t want to love again;
To love you have to share.
You knew, but still you followed me,
Persuaded me to dare.
I didn’t want to hurt again,
To lay my feelings bare.
You knew, but still you cherished me
And showed me how to care.
Now I’m alone; you had to leave.
Your love was sweet; for you I grieve.
by Gillian Nash
Bond of Love
We found this chemical attraction
so strong it pulled us together
two negatives of latent love,
bonded so close that our release
would coalesce in double pain.
Does it get used up, this loving reaction
or like magnetism, linking hand to hand
hold us in creative satisfaction,
‘til tide and time slip through as sand?
by David Ferguson
CHESTNUTS
In October we walked through the woodland
Found chestnuts among the fallen brown leaves
Scattered everywhere their prickly green cases
Blending with other greenery and soil
We found tree stumps as seats and fallen logs
With painted faces as crocodiles, truly
Leaves rustled beneath our feet until the
Cat sleek and grey with green eyes glistening
Loved our stroking and fussing as did we
The first time in that coveted forest.
by Penelope Cutler
Are you a lover of the spoken word? If so, The Felixstowe Café Poets are the people for you. At each monthly meeting, the group discuss all manner of poetry, from own works to published pieces. For just £2.50 per person per session, you can while away the hours at the Orwell Hotel reading, thinking about and chatting about poetry. Having had a wonderful time at the previous festivals, we look forward returning to the Felixstowe Book Festival in the summer.