There is something mesmeric about the rhythm of this poem by Matthew Welton which draws you onwards, like being tugged forward by the rope in a tug-of-war competition without your own momentum.
[photo: carcanet]
‘We Needed Coffee But…’
We needed coffee but we’d got ourselves convinced that the later we left it the better it would taste, and, as the country grew flatter and the roads became quiet and dusk began to colour the sky, you could guess from the way we retuned the radio and unfolded the map or commented on the view that the tang of determination had overtaken our thoughts, and when, fidgety and untalkative but almost home, we drew up outside the all-night restaurant, it felt like we might just stay in the car, listening to the engine and the gentle sound of the wind
Matthew Weldon is from Nottingham, UK. In 2003 he received the Jerwood-Aldeburgh First Collection Prize for The Book of Matthew [published by Carcanet], which was named a Guardian Book of the Year.
Listen to Matthew Welton read from ‘We Needed Coffee But…’ below.
‘We Needed Coffee But…’ by Matthew Welton [UK: Carcanet]
Read these other excerpts, and perhaps find a new poet to love:-
‘The Boy Tiresias’ by Kate Tempest
‘Runaways’ by Daniela Nunnari
‘The Roses’ by Katherine Towers
And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
A #poem to read in the bath: ‘We Needed Coffee but…’ by @mtthwwltn via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2up
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