Wednesday 23 April 2008

Archaeology and the Early History of Essex

He passes you a box, which includes:
A black arrowhead
Some knapped flints
(microliths, he explains).
Worked bright, as new now
As they were before they were buried.
And these are beautiful,
But obviously.

Then he passes you an ugly stone,
Heavy until you turn it
And it fits like your newborn's head,
This handaxe, like your infant's skull,
Fills your hand and no more.
As it should.

There is a dent for your thumb,
You and the Bronze Age meet,
You are holding History.
You think about your son's hands,
How curled and small they are now.
One day they too will fit this axe.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why do you not write in metre?

Mr Jenkins said...

Thanks for reading the stuff.

Not sure, anaonymous, if that is a criticism of the poems.

Some of the work is more metrically based than others. All, though, are quite clearly shped by a rrange of formal principles - particularly reflective of patterns of speech and other prosodic considerations.

I hope you coem back and read soem more and maybe evrn leave your name next time.

Anonymous said...

I noticed a form in almost all of the poems but I am not very good with much poetry that doesn't use meter strictly. Sometimes find eliot or whitman quite difficult - despite their pleasures too.

HelenMWalters said...

The blog widget sent me here. I love your blog and your poetry.

Mr Jenkins said...

Thank you Helen - that is a very lovely thing to say. I'll check your blog out.

Tess Kincaid said...

Your poetry is fabulous! I adore poetry and post quite a bit... usually others' pieces, but once in a while my own. Happy to have found you via the mysterious little black box.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful writing...I'm here via the black box. It's a pleasure to meet you.

aims said...

Oooooooh! How lovely!

Your poetry made me think.

Came via the box - a great end to a little journey.

virtualjourney said...

Very effective. Coincidentally met someone with a collection of axeheads recently, mostly British and French. Came via Black Box and look forward to reading more.