Peter laTrobe
writer
poetry
I'll keep this page updated with recent work.
By the way, there are a couple of poems on the 'readings' page as well.
Extract from Stane's Song for the Lords of Bernicia
In my novel WolvenSong, this is the story which propels my central character, Stane, into the deadly and mercurial world of 8th Centry Northumberland power politics.
'Conversation piece' is an example of a form I've been experimenting with for some time : prose-poetry. That's prose but written as though it's poetry, but without being arrranged into lines with rhymes.
ELEMENTAL posted April 2018
If he were air he would push his fingers through her hair,
caress and cool her face in sunshine,
scribble jet-trail messages of love across her skies,
roar around her till she leaned into his arms
and tug her skirt to remind her he is there.
If he were fire he would fleck her eyes with candle flames,
illuminate her skin soft peach and teasing shadows,
perfume her with the homely smoke of apple-wood,
feed her slightly singed marshmallows from a toasting fork
and warm her till she took her clothing off.
If he were water he would hold her in the cradle of her shape,
support her whilst she closed her eyes and smiled towards the sky,
charm her with a rainbow of small fish,
distract her with exotic perfumed oils
whist he embraced her full length nakedness.
But
he is earth, and all the alchemy of love and longing
cannot transmute him from base metal
to the gold that he would place within her hand
or the diamonds he would scatter on the velvet of her night. ©
