Janice Windle Poems

Taxi
Slowly
Turn
Pass
...

'Late, ' says the face of the childminder.
My daughter watches Zebedee
impassively.
Her silence says,
...

One morning I discover
an unwanted softness at my hip.
Distressed, I cry, 'Where's my pelvis gone? '
'Buried in cellulite, my dear, '
...

Caligula was driving the Positano bus today.
Swinging the wheel ferociously.
Small brown face, muttering.
The pallid barbarians,
...

Here are some more of the poems I wrote while staying on the Amalfi Coast in October 2008, with my lover Dónall. They are all based on little paintings I was doing in a book of beautiful soft Amalfi paper. When I've filled the book with poems and pictures I'll print copies. I have twenty more double pages to fill!

1. Olive Wood
...

That Christmas Day in Hong Kong
the sun gleamed on the plastic Christmas trees
the rippling flags, the signs
like vines hanging from the upper floors
...

In this bright room
the tree stands, raw,
naked, the winter chill
breathing from its branches.
...

VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM WINDOW

Gigantic mushrooms
green because they’re summer trees
...

If you and I had never met and loved,
My heart would be a tight black bud,
Forever furled, seeming to be promising
A fragrant opening, a spreading bed of roses,
...

I wrote this in response to a beautiful poem by Charles Bennett called 'How to Make a Woman out of Water'

Take a walk in a forest.
Find a stick. Choose carefully.
...