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This poem is taken from PN Review 113, Volume 23 Number 3, January - February 1997.

Six Poems Iain Bamforth


Things

Life and Spirit spoke together
about the firebird's fabulous return.
Things are hard, things lay us bare

against the mirror, in the register
of white and inner places, out of harm.
Life and Spirit spoke together,

loving the way the streets are whirr
and drone, and floating on alarm.
Things are hard, things lay us bare

between the dreams of rush hour
and exhaust, the way our bodies burn.
Life and Spirit spoke together

of a bird collided with a star.
Now we now why years confirm
...


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