poetry pRO     If Not Now
Jeremy Page, free download at CLP

Poets: browse the list

ppf SHOP ONLINE      MEMBERS’ EVENTS     MEMBERS’ COMPS & CALLS Jan25: Shepton Mallet
 
see/hear: YouTube, Valley Press – Michael di Placido reading his poem Scarborough Castle

 

 

donations will be very gratefully received.

latest on site:
   Judith Wozniak
   Alessio Zanelli
   Janet Hatherley
   Judith Wilkinson

latest new pages:
   Jennie Osborne
   Mary Robinson
   Mary Michaels (biog)
   Janet Hatherley

COMPS & CALLS:
Jan 25: Shepton Mallet
May25: Frogmore

latest comp results:
   Second Light 2024
   Frogmore 2024
   Ware 2023

selection of books:
   ppf shop online

previous projects:
   Blyth Valley Radio
   poetry tREnD

featured poet – Jo Roach

At my mother’s funeral

I watch my father for signs, as if
checking for the rash of a disease,
but his suit is buttoned-black,
the careful knot in his tie, you could see
a face in his shoes. We drink whisky
out of glasses too good to use and eat
thin slices of ham on-the-bone in our front room
with her sister Rosie who’s the spit.
Out come the photos, the holiday at Butlins,
my mother in a halter-neck and pencil skirt
shoulders bare, hair blown back.
Then I see too much of him wanting
her to walk in and say Put the glasses away
we’re saving them for best.
 

Jo Roach

previously published in The Company of Poets,
The Redbrick Review, USA, and Staple

© Copyright of all poems featured on this site remains with the poet
site feedback welcome