Poem: Peregrine
In this week’s Poet’s Corner, Louise McKenna shares a poem of both avian and pastoral association.
Photo: AAP/Mary Evans
Peregrine
Cumbria, between the Lake District & Northern Pennines.
A response to the Helen Mort poem ‘The Dogs’
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Some days I am thankful I am not a falcon having to plan my next murder. I am glad I do not have to be the fastest on earth or hatch in mid air like a lightning fork to skewer a pigeon at two thousand feet. And I am comforted by the fact I am not a falconer’s bird dressed in Lahore bells and jesses, disciplined by my need to eat. I do not pluck my food, swallow things whole or vomit up what I can’t digest, nor is my cry a harrowing, dissonant note or my lovemaking crude and passionless – but one day I will turn the pinions of my shoulders on the world, take off through Flakebridge Wood over the Eden Valley beyond the summit of Cross Fell and nothing will summon me back.
Louise McKenna was born in the United Kingdom, where she completed a joint honours degree in English Literature and French. Her collection A Lesson in Being Mortal was published in 2010 by Wakefield Press as part of the Friendly Street New Poets Series. Her poetry has also appeared in Australian and American literary journals. In 2013 she was shortlisted for the Irish Fish Publishing Poetry Prize. Her new chapbook collection The Martyrdom of Bees is published by Adelaide’s Garron Publishing this month.