'Gutted' and 'Here is my haul'
Poems
by Vivienne Tregenza
Gutted
‘withdrawal effects
can be severe and prolonged ’
Dr J. Moncrieff
That was the year
Thatof seared flesh and fishbones,
the year I was landed
the yegasping for breath, gulping
thin air, jerking and juddering
the yeon the slimy ground
as a knife eased my body
the yethe yfrom its backbone
and someone roasted the very small
the yepieces of me
beneath a mackerel sky
Here is my haul
from the woods
my footsteps
lifting me upwards
a little lighter now
my breathing stronger
than before; a few nodding
grasses with their dancing
string of seeds, birdsong
in my pocket. This leaf
skeleton light as a fish scale
with its fragile golden tracery;
this net of sunlight
holding it all.
About the Author
Vivienne Tregenza is a Cornish poet from Mousehole. Winner of the Formal Prize at Poetry on the Lake and placed/shortlisted in many poetry competitions, she is well published in UK journals including Ambit, Acumen and The Alchemy Spoon. Vivienne’s first collection ‘Conversations with Magic Stones’, inspired by the life and work of Barbara Hepworth (50 years after her death in St Ives), is due from Indigo Dreams Publishing later this year.