Nigel Humphreys

Nigel Humphreys has three volumes of poetry out published by Arbor Vitae Press, London, The Hawk's Mewl, The Flavour of Parallel and Of Moment. The introduction to The Flavour of Parallel describes his poetic voice as emerging "against a spectrum of coloured backgrounds reflected in life's glass and it displays a new edginess that dissects spirit and resonance. It is pushy and knowing, logical and penetrating, uncoiling and unflinching in its ability to measure the quality of that which it beholds".  His next book The Love Song of Daphnis and Chloe is due out next year 2015. It is a long narrative poem based on the 2^nd century novella by Longus which describes the love and adventures of two young herders in Ancient Greece.

Nigel is a member of the Welsh Academy and Literature Wales.

 

 

POEMS

In absentia

When you left the orchard,
latched the gate and waved, See you!

and the swing died

when we arrived from the theatre

and you had forgotten your coat

and insisted on going back

when you had to get away

and left my ward early

smiling at other beds

where did you go ? 

Did you cease to exist

in my absence ?

Dematerialise

and then some new law of physics

energised your re-appearance

in the orchard ?

or a notion

brought you back to my door

the night of the Becket ?

Does my yearning

recreate you

at my sickbed ?

 

Am I your trigger,

and you

a reason for living ?

 

The Hawk’s Mewl                                             

Arbor Vitae Press 2007

Coleridge

He alone on godforsaken Highgate hill 

in three-stop St Michael’s with its twee

gravel car park and pointless steeple   

next to that fairground of a cemetery,        

and me thwarted by four locked doors   

and no indication that genius lies within;

no sign ‘To the Poet’s Grave’ to ensure

due homage paid to a nation’s Laocoon.

Only a stone in the aisle for the Sunday

few to tread on. Shelley did better, Keats

in Rome, Southey, Byron at Missalonghi         

but they’ve blanked Coleridge, the shits

leaving me to suspend disbelief for a time  

and reconsecrate this church as a tomb.

 

from The Flavour of Parallel

Arbor Vitae Press 2010

(also features in the 2011 film Platform 5)

Visit Nigel's website HERE