The Flower and the Plough

Rachel Piercey, Emma Dai'an Wright

• Publisher: The Emma Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780957459601
• eBook ISBN: 9780957459618
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

The debut pamphlet by Rachel Piercey, 2008 winner of the prestigious Newdigate Prize, previously won by Oscar Wilde, James Fenton and Andrew Motion.

'Piercey's oscillations between lover's ecstasy and love poet's objectivity are so deft that her analytical lens becomes as much a fascination as the amorous perspective which it focuses. […] Wright's drawings are exuberant throughout, by turns cartoonish and painterly, playful and simple in the manner of Quentin Blake.' – Andrew Wynn Owen, the Oxonian Review.

A charming collection of love poems by Rachel Piercey, containing her unique reflections on love, heartbreak and relationships. Romantic but never sentimental, Piercey brings her characteristic emotional and linguistic clarity to her treatment of this universal human experience and across the twelve poems builds up a nuanced study of love, passion, heartache and bitterness. The poems are illustrated with line drawings which complement the text and offers the reader a way into the poems via Wright's personal response.

Bonfire

I have felled

all the trees in my wood

to keep you going,

thrown old faithfuls

and flimsy, startled

saplings into your

hot ears and come-

to-bed mouth.

Then all that was left

was the pointy scent

of gum

and the bellow of an oak.

So I hacked off my hair

with barely

a second thought,

and both ears

were carelessly slung in,

then my thumbs

with their crucial

opposability.

I’ve got my toes lined up

and my unaccountable hips

and my knees

are ready too,

so please

give me more

of your particular brand

of alchemy.

Because when you temper

scraps into treasure

I think it’s worth it,

and when you

spit out glass

though you only got sand

I think it’s worth it.

Because I could

spot you

a mile away

on any frightening night

and when I got there

you’d soften me.

Because I hope

that when I’m down

to just my heart in the open air

you’ll keep it warm.

Brief encounter

You and me, two close points

on the concourse, and the train

a magnetic third, drawing you

out of my arms. You move

off, dragging our three sides

through narrowing scalene

towards a single line. Waving,

diminishing, you slip into the train,

and your combined points pull away.

When I grew up I got Catullus (II)

A version of Catullus XI

_____ and _____, companions of _____,

whether you go to find yo...

Table of contents

• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• How it works
• Family tree
• When I grew up I got Catullus
• Sleepless night
• Make it up to you
• It’ll be me again
• Bonfire
• Brief encounter
• When I grew up I got Catullus (II)
• Sea bed
• After she’d gone
• Symbiosis
• About the authors
• About the Emma Press