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époque press
pronounced: /epƏk/
definition: /time/era/period

Anna Battersby
Short Film & Poetry

First Light

Stock still, heavy leaded.

First light flattening hues.

The grasses shudder,

huddle closer,

acrobatic mercury

caught in their creases.

Gulls fill the pale, cluster loop,

hungry, heart worn, searching

for the lost one,

you

Dream

Dusk and drizzle

In a seaside town.

In the distance, a huge bed,

a black freighter,

bound together, makeshift and ancient,

the legs bowing.

Crows crook and squawk,

wind splayed tips of wings

Dipping up and down

up and down.

Please make them stop,

it’s so dark and beautiful here

staring at the ragged ropes and reeds

binding this bed

Glade

How tired I am of this

not togetherness

Of getting it wrong

when it’s so right.

In lucid dreams

feet digging in deep,

toes, soil,

holding onto branches in a glade,

hum and birdsong

whilst you hold me in every way

someone can be

into the otherness of us.

‘Look up, we’re flying’

Struck

And there it was, majestic

outstretched blanched almond arms.

The sudden strike

the green of you turned to ash.

Tremulous rooted, never before seen.

Passing on a train

and in immediate danger,

she whispers,

‘I am you and you are me’

Anna has been working in the Third Sector for over twenty years. She is as highly motivated by the incredible work charities do as she is by the immersive experience of her own artwork and writing. In the 1980’s, Anna studied Fine Art and Mixed Media at the Byam Shaw School of Art. Her final year show included handmade books of her poetry and illustrations. She now makes short art films as well using photography, collages and writing poetry to express what she calls ‘other worldliness.’

 

Anna says that:

 

‘These four poems have been written recently. Like all my poetry and imagery, all four just arrived, born out of feelings of the shortage and rarity of lasting love.’

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