Fall/Winter 2015-2016



Josephine Dickinson

SALT VESSEL

After you have scraped
a crust of dried old clay
from the opened end
of the clay extruder
an umber river flows.

You score the top
of a clay vessel,
mist it with water,
brush it with slip.

You finger the river's course,
into ghylls, down dales,
through valleys,

seal with a thumb
to its new source,

look at the luting,
brush in more slip,
press a clay crumb
into a tiny gap,
smooth with a sponge,

look again,
first with your eyes,
and then with another eye–
squinting for salt.


Josephine Dickinson has published four collections of poetry: Scarberry Hill (The Rialto, 2001), The Voice (Flambard, 2003), Silence Fell (Houghton Mifflin, 2007) and Night Journey (Flambard, 2008). She lives on a small hill farm in Cumbria.

 


 

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