stdClass Object
(
[ID] => 21494
[post_author] => 31
[post_date] => 2021-03-25 20:08:46
[post_date_gmt] => 2021-03-25 20:08:46
[post_content] =>
The best time to take a shower with the lights off is forever.
Especially in the very early morning, before the stars
have gone in, with the snow on the mountain
faintly visible in the darkness through the crack in the window
where the steam piles out. You don’t have to leave the house
to see the world. Once my mum went into her bedroom
and took her own life. You never know what a person is going
to do next. It’s enough that you have the light from
the extractor hood to wash up in, and the space between the sofa
and the coffee table, where your knees go. Even the sound
of your downstairs neighbour singing in the afternoon
can be enough. It rises through the floorboards in the bedroom
and pulls you from the edge of sleep, returns you to your marriage,
to the heat trapped under the duvet. The body is, strictly speaking,
the only thing we can experience. It’s why I say snow to refer to
what is snowing in me. There is no mountain other than the one
that has been going on inside you the whole time.
It’s enough that you are allowed to lie naked next to her
on the bed, in as much darkness as the room can hold,
listening to the sound singing makes when it’s over.
[post_title] => Something to Show for It
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => closed
[ping_status] => closed
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => something-to-show-for-it
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2021-03-26 17:47:12
[post_modified_gmt] => 2021-03-26 17:47:12
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/?post_type=poems&p=21494
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => poems
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
[meta_data] => stdClass Object
(
[wpcf-published-in] =>
[wpcf-date-published] => 2020
[wpcf-summary-description] => 'Something to Show for It' was commended in the 2020 National Poetry Competition.
From the judges: "As in a Wallace Stevens poem, every line, every observation in ‘Something to Show for It’ has something to say about why it’s there, every line throws up new surprises, for ‘The body is, strictly speaking / the only thing you can experience’ just as the only reality is the reality of the poem, what is outside us is inside us. A beautifully succinct, compact poem riffing on the nature of perception.”
[wpcf-rights-information] =>
[wpcf-poem-award] => Commended in the 2020 National Poetry Competition
[wpcf_pr_belongs] =>
)
[poet_data] => stdClass Object
(
[ID] => 21496
[forename] =>
[surname] =>
[title] => Luke Allan
[slug] => luke-allan
[content] => Luke Allan is poetry editor at Partus Press and co-edits the magazines Pain and Oxford Poetry. Originally from Newcastle, he studied literature and creative writing at UEA and Oxford and was formerly managing editor at Carcanet Press and PN Review. Recently he won the Charles Causley International Poetry Competition, and was placed second in the Bridport Poetry Prize and third in the Mick Imlah Poetry Prize.
)
)
stdClass Object
(
[ID] => 21496
[forename] =>
[surname] =>
[title] => Luke Allan
[slug] => luke-allan
[content] => Luke Allan is poetry editor at Partus Press and co-edits the magazines Pain and Oxford Poetry. Originally from Newcastle, he studied literature and creative writing at UEA and Oxford and was formerly managing editor at Carcanet Press and PN Review. Recently he won the Charles Causley International Poetry Competition, and was placed second in the Bridport Poetry Prize and third in the Mick Imlah Poetry Prize.
)
The best time to take a shower with the lights off is forever.
Especially in the very early morning, before the stars
have gone in, with the snow on the mountain
faintly visible in the darkness through the crack in the window
where the steam piles out. You don’t have to leave the house
to see the world. Once my mum went into her bedroom
and took her own life. You never know what a person is going
to do next. It’s enough that you have the light from
the extractor hood to wash up in, and the space between the sofa
and the coffee table, where your knees go. Even the sound
of your downstairs neighbour singing in the afternoon
can be enough. It rises through the floorboards in the bedroom
and pulls you from the edge of sleep, returns you to your marriage,
to the heat trapped under the duvet. The body is, strictly speaking,
the only thing we can experience. It’s why I say snow to refer to
what is snowing in me. There is no mountain other than the one
that has been going on inside you the whole time.
It’s enough that you are allowed to lie naked next to her
on the bed, in as much darkness as the room can hold,
listening to the sound singing makes when it’s over.