Whisps and Whispers

"The latest collection of poems by Cornish poet, DM Thomas, the author of The White Hotel and Ararat. DM Thomas is an internationally acclaimed novelist, poet and biographer. As well as numerous novels and poetry collections, he has written a children’s book about Flora Day, a prize-winning biography of Alexander Solzhenitsyn and a play, Hell Fire Corner about the life of Redruth rugby player Bert Solomon."
— Francis Boutle Publishers
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First Light

I’d whooping cough, so I was told,
at six weeks, or more likely six months, old;

and I recall as though it were today
what must have been a fierce cough racking me

although I seem outside my own distress
till I can breathe again. Primal, it’s less

a memory than something I still feel,
as real as now is. There’s a woman’s pale

face looking on, upset: I’m sure, my aunt’s;
and I am being held, although I can’t

feel mother’s arms: I seem to float
mid-air. It’s murky, from my sight

being still weak, I suppose; but I’m aware
of the pale face, and larger paleness where

I’ll later know one looks out at a carn.
This is where I was for an instant born

into myself, a being in the world,
and I don’t feel the cough, nor being held,

but love I see and feel. Including light.
And both seem known to me, and infinite.

— DM Thomas, from Flight and Smoke

Read more from his blog, DON-WHITEHOTEL,  here…

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