Mike in Finland

Saturday 23 October 2010

A Poem From Midas Touch

I´ve been looking at cover images for my poetry collection, Midas Touch, which is due to be published by Ward Wood Publishing at the end of November. Mike Fortune-Wood has picked out a number of possible images and we´ve been discussing which is the best. I think we´re almost there now and I´m looking forward to seeing how the book´s actually going to look. As soon as Mike has it ready, I´ll post it on my blog. In the meantime, here´s another poem from the collection.

Crossing The Alps

Two hours out of the village

I´d climbed the mountain´s shaded side

two months deeper into winter.


Coarse grass was brown, ground water

had flowed over the path

and frozen. I stopped.


The smooth sheet sloped down,

curled round the overhang, drips

falling onto rocks in the gully.


I put one foot on the ice,

shifted my weight, hesitated,

then moved my other foot forward.


Five steps carried me over, my pulse racing.

I stood on the brink, dislodging pebbles

and knew I had no way back.


As I climbed higher, peaks

reared up behind the black

ridgeback. Cresting it,


I toppled into the new view. Bank

behind bank of ice anchored on stone

all the way to Italy.


The village I´d left,

tethered to the foothills

by a winding cord of tarmac.

5 comments:

  1. Can't wait to see the cover. Can't wait to read the rest of the poems. This one's wonderful...

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  2. Thanks very much, Sue, I´m pleased you enjoyed it.

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  3. How lovely to see this poem here. The cover is nearly ready. We all take forever collaborating on the covers but I think it's worth it!

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  4. Mike F-W´s been doing a great job with the cover. It looks like nearly done now. This poem goes quite well with the cover design, I think.

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  5. Yes. I think it also goes well with that poem where you start describing the interior of a room in detail, then look at the mountains through the window, and then .... But I won't spoil it!

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