Invasion
“It’s the way sunlight insists itself
and catches gold in your eyelashes:
a promise reflected on your resting cheek.
Later, halfway between anywhere, you stand
exposed to the view from the cliff-top.
That’s close enough for now. ...”
About the poem
This poem was published in October 2016 and is featured on The Literateur website.
It was written as part of my MA Dissertation in which I examined the physical and culture clash between native Britons and Romans in Ancient Britain, as the result of a writing exercise suggested by Glyn Maxwell in his book On Poetry. The exercise involves allocating certain meanings and circumstances to playing cards, turning them over at random and creating stanzas according to what the cards dictate. What I found particularly interesting about the exercise is that, steeped as I was at the time in my research into Ancient Britain, the entirely random selection seemed to bear very relevant fruit which allowed me to include this in my collection alongside poems more directly inspired by a location, artefact or historical figure.