Tim Lenton

Tim Lenton is a retired newspaper columnist and sub-editor who lives in his home town of Norwich. He won the Fish International Poetry Prize in 2007 and has published a number of books of poetry, including collections of tanka and photographs in collaboration with Joy McCall. He publishes poetry on his website, www.back2sq1.co.uk, and reads regularly at the Seagull and Pinky’s. Recent books include Waving from a Distance, containing poems written on every day of Lent, and The Road Ends – poems and pictures of Iona. He is married to Dot – a violinist who occasionally accompanies his self-penned songs at the Seagull.

ALDEBURGH

The sound of pianos on the beach,
the fall of rain on the roof
like stones under the ancient waves

Your fingers move like lightning
then slowly, touching me gently:
my skin tingles

One of us is learning the tunes
and how to play them,
taking them all the way
inside

Maybe both of us

So much water on the marsh,
in the river and across the roads:
we lie on strange beds
in the summerhouse

The wine rises to the surface,
the body and the bread:
can it be true?

The wild sea is not far away, but
we head inland on old ridge paths,
listening for the tune again,

that eastern poetry,
that distant voice,
that old, elusive love.

Copyright © 2018 Tim Lenton