Kate Noakes
My first collection, Ocean to Interior , was published by Mighty Erudite in 2007 and my second,
The Wall Menders, by Two Rivers Press in 2009. My work has appeared in Poetry Ireland Review, Planet,
Poetry Salzburg Review, The Wolf and two anthologies in 2012 (A Mutual Friend, Two Rivers Press & Tokens
for the Foundlings, Seren). I have performed at Glastonbury, Nottingham, Marlborough and Henley festivals
and at The Troubadour. I have taught poetry to undergraduates at Oxford University.
I have taught poetry to undergraduates at Oxford University.
The wall menders
I see him now as a man:
my boy and I work together
making music of boulder and grit,
passing stones over this growing wall.
We fill the brief space between us
with small notes, flat, sharp,
coming closer in building a barrier
that forgets the contours of the fells.
I see him now in the air
and never-harming rain, a man spared
the heat of the pit. We make
our own small monuments.
We were here and we thought about
scored coping, lunkies for sheep,
made stiles and badger smoots
and paused for breath on the mossy clefts.
I might hear the gush of water
pumped from galleries and shafts,
whispers of re-hiring. But I’m too old
and spoiled by the open.
My boy lacks the skills of prop, board
and pick, spends his days
in this uplifting labour, his voice
quavering between whistle and hum.