Hetherington, Matt
Part Way There
Matt Hetherington
Home Poem
in this place to meet and greet
there are as many streetlights as people
yet you walk only to your car and back again
staring through a distance which is always close
[vague pain]
[black mountain]
[the surgical insertion of the cold]
[eyes like marbles]
[the fields of brown grass and the empty parks]
…
here we can be safely fated to our allotment
but how have roots in the city of air?
i have shadows in the brain from beating my head
on what is clearly transparent
Even So
no old hole
that spat us out
and odd one shouldn’t often
think of that
…
the forbidden is hidden
by having no name
…
the erasure of a blank
is an ancient answer
but the same questions return
like water and its murmur
[Not the Sun?]
not the sun but the dark
that makes shadows
the ones that stay still even in storms
not…
not my leaving but my staying
that forced her
to open the last remaining door
[For My Daughter?]
1st lines:
i will enter
the still centre
of the baby’s black shriek
…
we have lost
what you now have
…
Ending lines:
to love beyond love
beyond time
beyond life
Inside & Out
inside, the unclear window
outside, the closed blind
inside, the familiar doors
outside, the painted fences
inside, spices & incense
…
…
outside, scaffolds and detours
…
Opening Lines for Poems
another morning standing at the sink
::
i was painting the ceiling with memories
when some fluff covered the sun
::
big green eyes, one white lie
::
there is a river
that runs as blood
from my heart to your own
and i have swum against it long enough
::
i am nothing like a zero
::
all the words forgotten
on hot nights with the lights out
::
i love clouds more than the sun
but less than sunlight
Ending Lines for Poems
and the force that through a fire
drives the water to the earth
::
two birds
fall asleep
in a tree
Titles for Poems
Persistence
Making Notes
You Only Have to Look
An Awkward Walk in the White Forest
To Be Read At Least Once
Funny How
Another Fucking Fuck
The Love of the Sun
Not the Only One
Face to Face
For Love’s Ache
Who Goes Where the Rat Goes?
Index of Titles
Any Way