Poems by K V Skene

Now There is Nothing Left But the Journey

as November inches under our anoraks

we walk down Iffley, bypass the sports ground

where Bannister broke the four minute mile,

enter Jackdaw lane, enter

an abandoned apple orchard – branches

beckoning a sun we barely remember Hear

the Cherwell grumble

when no one else is about Across a small bridge,

SS Mary and John School

where the kids throw hellos out the window

and Stanley Road Mosque,

empty and locked and always

the most unpretentious angel in the crypt

We’ve not been here before

so we take a picture and a chair at the Magic on Magdalen,

let our coffee cups circle the formica,

black and white I don’t know

why but I tell it all – everything

that ever happened to me,

not to others just to me.

In Place of Stillness and Solitude

Loose leaves

lost in the wind, January

follows the rain

Take my hand

the two of us can

walk the deserted footpath mud

ankle deep between broken trees

white winter grass,

the MSC and Bossom’s Boathouse

expertly sandbagged

against the expected

still threatening Rainbow Bridge

the sky hangs heavy

while web-footed ‘Port Meadow Specials’

churn up the Isis, duck under the Bailey bridge

We can smell the northwind,

the cold dark scentof home

Hint:

MSC mean Medly Sailing Club.

K.V. Skene’s  poetry has appeared in Canadian, U.K., U.S. Irish, Australian and Austrian magazines.  Her poetry sequence, The Whitening of the Ox, originally published in Descant 92/93, 1996, was set to music by composer Jeffrey Ryan and had its world premier January 2012 at Harbourfront and its west coast premiere August 2012 at Vancouver’s MusicFest. Amongst others, she has won the Saving Bannister Competition (2012), the IDP Annual Poetry Award (2010), the IDP Winter Collection Competition (2009), The Ragged Raven 12th Annual Poetry Competition (2009) and the Shaunt Basmajian Chapbook Award in 2004 and 2009. Her publications include Love in the (Irrational) Imperfect, Hidden Brook Press and You Can Almost Hear Their Voices, Indigo Dreams Publishing.