Poetry Life and Times

For blank hours our bus had swung,
Steadily grinding down parabolas
Against the wheeling empty sky.
Riding a sluiced track of decaying tar
An extenuated rattling afterthought,
A tattooed apology to progress.

Mountain slopes pinned like curtains
Against our backs. White tooth-stones
Edging the dropped jaw of the road.
A lifetime below in the darkened creases
Of the earth, a secret string unravelled,
Melt water, in an unvoiced torrent.

Then in the crook of an alpine elbow
The world tipped upward into view
Yawning lazily like a stretching giant.
Tingling point.
A void of expanded air
Pulling saw-blade peaks white with snow
Out of a silent, breathless distance.

Only the ticking of the cooling engine
A bleating goat, some buzzling insect
Remind us that beyond the remoteness
Here, the world is still moving.

 Simon Miller teaches English and Drama at an international school in Thailand where he lives with his wife and three growing children. He has written several plays for young people. His own childhood was spent between Botswana and England and he has rarely stopped exploring since. Social history, culture and the natural world are his main fascinations, and particularly the points where all three meet.

This poem is copyright of the author and appears by permission, and for the sole purpose of the marketing and promotion of, The Poetic Bond III, prior to publication on 30th September.  All rights reserved; all applications for use in any media should be addressed to the author, and all applications for use in any media of this poem in conjunction, or in connection with, The Poetic Bond III, in any media, should be addressed to Willowdown Books.

PRESS RELEASE

THE POETIC BOND III

Publication date 30^th September, 2013

Contact; Trevor Maynard, editor, thepoeticbond@uk2.net

The Poetic Bond III is the third anthology of poets from new media, social and professional networking, mainly garnered from the professional networking website, LinkedIn, but also through performance and word of mouth. The Poetic Bond is about exploring, sharing and encouraging poetry from all over the world.

Thirty-six poets from 11 countries were selected through a submission process in which there were no restrictions on form, style, length of subject; instead the choices made were on the basis of emergent themes and congruency in the pool of work; a snapshot of the poetry of new media NOW, seeking to capture the zeitgeist of the moment.

Editors’ Notes

1. THE POETIC BOND III (2013) (edited by Trevor Maynard) ISBN  978-1492384199 will be published by Willowdown Books and will be available on Amazon from 30^th September 2013 for $19.99/£14.99.

2.  Copies can be pre-ordered for the pre-publication offer price of $10/£7 from http://www.thepoeticbond.com

3.   Biographies  of the poets contributing to the anthology can be found at http://www.thepoeticbond.com/IIImeetthepoets.htm

4.  Trevor Maynard is a UK based poet and writer, manager of Poetry, Review and Discuss Group; his second poetry collection is KEEP ON KEEPIN’ ON is published by Willowdown Books and further details are available at www.trevormaynard.com