Issue 29: Simon Perril

A secular prayer for the Monk at 70

Geraldine,

this madvent

in the bleak midwinter

dust peppers

the crenulations

of my cauli-creased cerebellum.

I bring you

the gloves of Glenn Gould

you know what to do:

play on

Lancashire Soot

this

day

G

black

shapes

flake

for

thee

fall

at

two

score

and

ten

snow

negatives

smudge

page

[Simon Perril is a poet and collagist. His poetry publications include The Slip (Shearsman, 2020), In the Final Year of my 40s (Shearsman, 2018), Beneath (Shearsman, 2015)  Archilochus on the Moon (Shearsman, 2013), Newton’s Splinter (Open House, 2012), Nitrate (Salt, 2010), A Clutch of Odes (Oystercatcher, 2009), and Hearing is Itself Suddenly a Kind of Singing (Salt, 2004).  As a critic he has written widely on contemporary poetry, editing The Salt Companion to John James, and Tending the Vortex: The Works of Brian Catling. He is Professor of Poetic Practice at De Montfort University, in Leicester. You can see Simon’s performance/talk sharing 3 projects, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJoI30MzLGs ]

Copyright © 2022 by Simon Perril, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of copyright law. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the notification of the journal and consent of the author.