Quinterview 10

The Passionate Transitory's tenth quinterview is with outstanding writer Morelle Smith, whose poem When The Almond Tree Comes Into Flower was one of the highlights of our first issue.  

Afterwards, reading the words I’d written, what struck me most was not so much whether what I’d written was anything "good", but that I’d been in a trance-like state and this had produced these words and this was astonishing to me, like a revelation. It was quite different, much more heightened and emotional than the prose writing I’d done before. It was like a kind of magic, that such a thing could happen.

Morelle Smith

Morelle Smith

The Passionate Transitory: Issue No. 1

It's come at last — Issue No. 1 of my new poetry magazine, The Passionate Transitory. Available online here. Thirty-four poems by fourteen poets. There are all kinds of poems to discover — from short meditations to long, Beat-style riffs.  I think the standard is very high. Please send your comments and reactions! Here's a taster:

When the Almond Tree Comes into Flower

It's as if there is a skin that we inhabit,
like a bag of memories, all the assorted colours
of our dreams and our dilemmas,
our crew of followers, our warrior supporters,
a gang of indented labourers,
the grumbling ones who're forever
demonstrating and protesting,
a fractious mob who pull the plug
on all our best intentions; muttering dissent,
they pack and come with us as well.

Sometimes it's like a race, this travelling,
to see if one can leave before they've time
to file complaints.
But when we arrive, their turbulence,
and their rebellious postures can fall
strangely silent, something co-operative
gets to works inside this skin.

And that's when it begins.
That's when some energy of landscape,
birdsong, sunlight, reaches in and pulls you
out of who you thought you were.

Sometimes it can feel like
yesterday's discovery —
the first blossom of the almond tree.
As they say here in the Midi,
when the almond tree comes into flower,
you know that winter's truly gone.

Morelle Smith
© Morelle Smith

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