Instead of Rushing

26/10/10

Instead of Rushing by J L Williams

J L Williams was born in New Jersey and studied at Wellesley College and on the MLitt in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. Her poetry has been published in journals including Stand, The Wolf and Poetry Wales. Williams was recently awarded the Edwin Morgan Travel Bursary from the Scottish Arts Trust to travel to the Aeolian Isles and write a collection inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses, to be published by Shearsman in February 2011. jlwpoetry.googlepages.com

Instead of Rushing

Water opted for stillness.
This was not in its nature, banks
(the lips of earth) crumbled.
Petals in pools; stars.

All over the world boats sat like fat cats
in sunshine. Sailors wept and cursed, the women
wracked by tides took deep breaths, bled less,
kissed their men. Some comfort then in

pause. A bird creaks. Snow slides
from a mountaintop and melts a gush.
All flow starts then, pools to rivers' bends become
a never-ending oxbow round the world...

but something remains of peace, stillness;
puddles like mirrors.

J L Williams

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