‘It’s gone.’
‘What has?’
‘It. This. Everything.’
‘The chair is still here. I’m still here.’
‘I don’t mean the chair. I mean it, it.’
‘You’ve lost me.’
‘That’s not hard.’
‘Try me.’
‘I mean, I mean it’s gone. I really think it’s gone from me this time.’ I pause and look at the book for a moment. ‘The poetry. I’m talking about the poetry.’
”The’ poetry? Why not just say ‘poetry’?’
‘OK. Poetry. I think poetry has left me.’
‘But you don’t really think that, do you, not really, not deep down, not here.’ The book spreads its hand across its stomach, which I notice has become rather swollen.
‘No.’
‘Well, then. Stop complaining. A poem on my desk, by seven tomorrow morning.’
‘But I can’t.’
‘Yes you can.’
‘I can’t.’
‘You can.’
‘Can’t.’
‘You can,’ says the book. ‘And you will.’
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Published by Anthony Wilson
I am a lecturer, poet and writing tutor. I work in teacher and medical education at the University of Exeter. My anthology Lifesaving Poems was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2015. In 2012 I published Riddance (Worple Press), a collection of poems, and Love for Now (Impress Books), a memoir, about my experience of cancer. My most recent books are Deck Shoes (Impress Books, 2019), a book of prose memoir and criticism, and The Afterlife (Worple Press, 2019). In 2023 I will publish The Wind and the Rain, my sixth collection of poems, with Blue Diode Press. My current research project, with Sue Dymoke from Nottingham Trent University and funded by the Foyle Foundation, is Young Poets' Stories: https://youngpoetsstories.com/. This blog is archived by the British Library.
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Anthony Wilson 
Tough love
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Ooohhh that is quite scary ….a little Pinteresque …..sends a shiver down my spine; it is however rather beautiful and lingers in the mind……clever!
Lovely to share this.
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Bless you for saying so Cherry. And thank you for the Pinter ref. I don’t feel I ever shake him off. xx and Love, Ant
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