Welcome, dear blog readers, to another installment of our weekly feature, “Pick-a-Poem.” Every Wednesday on the blog, we feature a poem from someone whose work you may not have read before. We get these poems from Poetry Daily, which is a great site that features a new poem every single day. If you’re looking to discover some new poetry, I would definitely check out Poetry Daily. This week we feature Story by Frances Leviston.
According to her bio page on Poetry Daily, Frances Leviston is a Scottish poet, whose first collection — Public Dream — was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize for the Best First Collection, and the Jerwood-Aldeburgh First Collection Prize. Her work has appeared in The London Review of Books, The Guardian, and The Times.
Story by Frances Leviston
Under what tree, in what part of the forest, beside which branch
of the leaf-obstructed stream, in sun or in rain,concreted into what foundation, supporting whose house, deaf
to how many dinner parties, subjected to how many holding-forths,compacted along with what model of car, with what registration,
wearing which perfume and what sort of pearls,in the back-of-beyond of what country, adjoining whose under-
development land, masked by which strain of animal fodder’spollen blown from the next field along, belonging to whom, missed
by whom, questioned by which particular method, scarred where,repaired where, reopened how, broken how,
how taken care of, transported how, buriedhow, in what manner and from what platform disclaimed
during which international crisis, during which electoral year,under whose watch, under whose watch
and why will it surface, why will it then be permitted to surface,the end of the story, the body we need?
I hope you enjoyed this week’s featured poem! For more of these posts, click right here.
— Jet Fuel Blog Editor, Mary Egan
