turning aside

I’m going to start my journey the way Eskimos do
not travelling in a straight line   not planning a route
not trying to keep within footpaths of thought
but opening my mind to the slightest change
in this landscape of unrelenting ice and snow
perhaps it’s a touch of wind on my face
that whispers   more cold is coming   or it’s a glimpse
of something small    like this ground squirrel
I’ve zigzagged away to see    we’ll sit down together
talk      not with the directness of my people
no   not with words    but quiet fingers of thought
as if he’s a shaman    yes     we’re in this together
each taking different things from the landscape
for him it’s the never-ending search for food
shamrock   lichen   sphagnum moss     or treasure
I know he’s partial to socks to line his nest he
and his brother stole mine while I was sleeping
I bear no grudge   we share the same sweep of vision
our lives converge with the same force
when we’re here on top of the world
I look with awe at the unchanging horizon
know my purpose has been strengthened
by stepping aside for a while
 

Caroline Carver

in collectionCannonball with Feathers 2022,
Oversteps Books, ISBN 978-1-906856-94-6

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London Underground

here under the ground  says the teacher
under this soft stubby grass
under all the weevils and kill-you-off spiders
under the silent worms millions of microbes
yes   look down    you must try and imagine
tunnels   passageways   creaking elevators
imagine humans like ants   there are so many
all crowding down with their faraway faces
if you can imagine this    girls
you will know what it’s like to live in London
 
we Jamaicans gaze down at the grass     its multitude
of life forms      its kindness to feet
think down to the limestone heart of the island
the caves and grottos    fish    electric eels
and we cannot imagine tunnels  and trains
replacing the glitter of stalactites   gentle curves
made by millennia of soft sea fingers
soothing these walls into water palaces
 
sun beats down on our heads
 
we think the London Underground
should have boats   fishermen
heavy-voiced frigate birds
not the trains’ diddy dum as they move into stations
where brakes   you say    sound like abandoned gulls
as pads check   wheels sigh     cling to the tracks
until the doors open    throw people out
suck people in
 
we decide we will not go to London
 

Caroline Carver

in collectionCannonball with Feathers 2022,
Oversteps Books, ISBN 978-1-906856-94-6

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leaving home
from theNorway Søster poems

there was the day you left home for the first time
we stood on the bridge that ran over the stream
which we’d always pretended was important
a bridge for a prince to use   if one came our way
but sometimes we ran fast down the hillside
gathered ourselves       jumped across
or we swung on the rope    you tarzan   me jane
letting go just before the end of the trajectory
so we could grasp the scruff of bank   you laughed
if I fell in      I hated you for doing everything better
for knowing how to please people
that’s the interesting one   they’d nod to each other
but I was the one with sharp ears
and now you were going
I cried myself into hiccupping semi-silence
looked at our parents   saw the bits of them
repeated in you   never in myself
I was afraid    without you
I would disappear into sun-sheltering woods
and though people would hunt me for a long time
call out sniffer dogs       beaters would square the fields
the hens droop     stop laying    no one would ever find me
 

Caroline Carver

in collectionCannonball with Feathers 2022,
Oversteps Books, ISBN 978-1-906856-94-6

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“beyond the forest”

in the Carpathian Mountains
of Transylvania
you may find bears and wolves
but though I walked there
I never saw one         and no
there are no vampires
 
so   open this forest book for me
let me live in a house with
low-beamed ceilings     lamp-lit rooms
the magic of fruit-carved armoires
soft-polished wood floorboards
the scent of plum brandy
 
let me sense the smells of pine and moss
the chink of cow-bells     let me wake
in a house with horses outside
their legs so long they can run
to the moon and back in a morning
Let me sleep in a bed full of history
 
let me meet a count so handsome
I burst into tears when I see him
 

Caroline Carver

in collectionCannonball with Feathers 2022,
Oversteps Books, ISBN 978-1-906856-94-6

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