Tom Pow
We feature work by poet Tom Pow to mark National Poetry Day 2010.
Tom Pow was born in Edinburgh and is currently based in Dumfries, where he holds the position of Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Glasgow University Dumfries Campus. Several of Tom's poetry collections have won prizes, including the poetry category of the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book Awards in 2009.
In addition to poetry, Tom has produced radio plays, picture books, novels for young adults and a travel book. Tom has also held several writing positions, including that of the first ever writer-in-residence at the Edinburgh International Book Festival from 2001-2003.
These two poems are taken from 'Songs From a dying village', published by Pueblo Press. Tom says: 'The pamphlet is part of an on-going project on the dying villages of Europe, funded by a Creative Scotland Award in 2007.'
Untitled
A man and a woman once sat down
at a bare table and looked out
at the sky. What needs to be done?
they asked, so that, in later years,
their children or their grandchildren
might ask, What shall we do today?
XIV
Oh little apple and whither
are you rolling? Ever further
from the riverside, where she waits,
as still as a heron, for you.
Oh little apple, will this be
your last word? There are no last
words.
The river flows on, as it must,
past you and the lonely heron.