époque press
pronounced: /epƏk/
definition: /time/era/period
Anna Battersby
Short Film & Poetry
First Light
Stock still, heavy leaded.
First light flattening hues.
The grasses shudder,
huddle closer,
acrobatic mercury
caught in their creases.
Gulls fill the pale, cluster loop,
hungry, heart worn, searching
for the lost one,
you
Dream
Dusk and drizzle
In a seaside town.
In the distance, a huge bed,
a black freighter,
bound together, makeshift and ancient,
the legs bowing.
Crows crook and squawk,
wind splayed tips of wings
Dipping up and down
up and down.
Please make them stop,
it’s so dark and beautiful here
staring at the ragged ropes and reeds
binding this bed
Glade
How tired I am of this
not togetherness
Of getting it wrong
when it’s so right.
In lucid dreams
feet digging in deep,
toes, soil,
holding onto branches in a glade,
hum and birdsong
whilst you hold me in every way
someone can be
into the otherness of us.
‘Look up, we’re flying’
Struck
And there it was, majestic
outstretched blanched almond arms.
The sudden strike
the green of you turned to ash.
Tremulous rooted, never before seen.
Passing on a train
and in immediate danger,
she whispers,
‘I am you and you are me’
Anna has been working in the Third Sector for over twenty years. She is as highly motivated by the incredible work charities do as she is by the immersive experience of her own artwork and writing. In the 1980’s, Anna studied Fine Art and Mixed Media at the Byam Shaw School of Art. Her final year show included handmade books of her poetry and illustrations. She now makes short art films as well using photography, collages and writing poetry to express what she calls ‘other worldliness.’
Anna says that:
‘These four poems have been written recently. Like all my poetry and imagery, all four just arrived, born out of feelings of the shortage and rarity of lasting love.’