In a recent review in the Church Times, Martyn Halsall said, “Gillian Allnutt’s spare, elegiac poems are like runes on bone; messages from another world” which is an apt description since her poems are often spare to the point of being obscure. He also said, “These are pilgrim poems, light-footed, and yet dedicated to spiritual quest; ambitious in their intensity; profound in their search for grace…”
The following poems are both from Lintel (2001, Bloodaxe Books).
Meditation
I said to my soul: be still and wait
where the light green sediment collects
at the lake’s near edge.
An old red lifebelt hangs in silence, sedge-
still. Still the long rope,
loosely gathered, loops
on its cast-iron post
like hope, at rest.
The Road Home
It is the road to God
that matters now, the ragged road, the wood.
And if you will, drop pebbles here and there
like Hansel, Gretel, right where
They’ll shine
in the wilful light of the moon.
You won’t be going back to the hut
where father, mother plot
the cul de sac of the world
in a field
that’s permanently full
of people
looking for a festival
of literature, a fairy tale,
a feathered
nest of brothers, sisters. Would
that first world, bared now to the word
God, wade
with you, through wood, into the weald and weather
of the stars?
Entry written by D.S. Martin. His latest poetry collection is Ampersand (2018, Cascade). His books are available through Amazon, and Wipf & Stock, including the anthologies The Turning Aside, and Adam, Eve, & the Riders of the Apocalypse.
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