‘THE PRISON HOUSE OF LANGUAGE’?
Midwinter, Wessex, eight seven eight AD.
Metalled men, fur wrapped, steaming
still to watch the hawk strike, then urge
their shaggy ponies through the snow.
Guthrum, refusing a verb’s negation,
approaches an unexpected victory.
Alfred, snug in a stale syntax,
wakes to martyrdom battering his walls.
Flees to the fens, learns modality
or changing a tense, can make now then,
tomorrow different. Unlike the hawk.
LIAM GUILAR lives in Australia where he teaches English. He studied Medieval Literature first as an undergraduate at Birmingham University and then as a post graduate at the University of Queensland in Australia. He spent several decades searching for wild rivers in remote parts of the world. He has had four collections of poems published; the most recent Rough Spun to Close Weave, is published by Ginninderra press http://www.ginninderrapress.com.au/poetry.html He runs a blog at http://ladygodivaandme.blogspot.com.au
