The Emmores

Love poems

Richard O'Brien

• Publisher: The Emma Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780957459649
• eBook ISBN: 9781910139486
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

A fascinating pamphlet of love poems all themed around the poet's single object of desire. In this beautifully illustrated collection, Richard O'Brien deploys every trick in the love poet's book, resulting in a irresistible mix of tender odes, introspective sonnets, exuberant free verse and anthems of sexual persuasion. The poems plunge from ecstasy into melancholy from couplet to couplet, and the book as a whole stands as a defiant sally against the pressures of long-distance relationships. Loosely inspired by the Roman poet Ovid's Amores.

Lincolnshire poet Richard O'Brien studied English and French at Oxford University and hosted an English-language radio show on EU Radio Nantes after graduating in 2012. He is now studying Shakespeare and Creativity at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon.

His first pamphlet, your own devices, was published by tall-lighthouse press in 2011, as part of the Pilot series for British and Irish poets under 30. His work has since featured in Poetry London, the Erotic Review, The Salt Book of Younger Poets and The Best British Poetry 2013. His blog, The Scallop-Shell, is dedicated to the close reading of contemporary poetry and he recently performed his poems at the BBC Proms Lates. His second full pamphlet, A Bloody Mess, will be published by Ink Lines (an imprint of Valley Press) towards the end of 2013.

[illustration 1]

The Smell of Apples

‘And beyond these isles there is another isle that is clept Pytan. The folk of that country ne till not, ne labour not the earth, for they eat no manner thing. [...] These men live by the smell of wild apples. And when they go any far way, they bear the apples with them; for if they had lost the savour of the apples, they should die anon.’ – The Book of Sir John Mandeville

O give me the thread from the hem of your dress

that you caught in St James’s Park

and give me the blank in the blink of your eyes

before they adjust to the dark

and give me the space in the skin of your throat

that you smooth away with a breath

and the infinitesimal decimal point

between your tongue and your teeth;

then give me the drip of a droplet of water

that found its way down through your hair

and give me the light that your body divided

and spread like a sodium flare.

Now give me the dust that you brushed from your jeans

on the chairs in the station café

and give me the spark that was spat from the track

of the train that took you away

and give me the dot on the ‘i’ on the map

of the village where you live –

the cross of the ‘t’ in a neighbouring town

if it’s all you’ve got to give.

And then give me a signal, a cipher, a sign,

a trinket, a token, a ring,

and I’ll follow it blind to the base of your spine

and I’ll give you everything.

Magician’s Assistant

Legs. Released by the entrance song

they spread like an accordion,

collapse. I have been working on

resistance to your charms –

and failing that, my upper arms.

Dry ice evades all smoke alarms.

*

After the show I hold your cloak

above the dust of the retail park.

Step lightly, darling, through the dark.

Your sequined foot unsticks the clutch.

Unchoreographed, our belts click shut.

An escapologist is never stuck.

One room. You clatter through the minibar;

your wrists, their first-time fire-thrower scars.

My heart’s a sleeve that won’t stop spilling scarves.

*

I’m breathless at your sleight of hand;

be good to me, the Great, the Grand.

The cushions levitate. I never see them land.

We climb inside your velvet trunk,

dodge hidden drawers, gewgaws and junk,

half-dressed and more than halfway drunk,

and bring the lid down, plush with galaxies

that stroke you...

Table of contents

• * * *The Emmores
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Copyright
• Contents
• Fragments from an Aubade
• [illustration 1]
• Magician’s Assistant
• Desire Path
• [illustration 2]
• Scintillometry
• Then Came Corinna...
• [illustration 3]
• Bed Trick
• Poem for the Julian Calendar
• [illustration 4]
• High Striker
• ‘There are many great reasons to make a rubber band ball...’
• [illustration 5]
• Missing the Perseids
• Campsite
• Contract
• [illustration 6]
• Lemman
• [illustration 7]
• Acknowledgements
• About the authors
• The Emma Press
• Also from the Emma Press