Sissinghurst
for Vita Sackville-West
Let us cram with flowers each threatened rift
in the garden we have made together:
catastrophe can be a kind of gift.
Our marriage is a ship which we let drift
with no thought of ever dropping anchor.
Let us cram with flowers each threatened rift.
The ways the world undoes our love are swift
and sure as a surge of rushing water.
Still, catastrophe can be a kind of gift.
The terms of our arrangement may well shift
as the soil shifts on the banks of a river.
Let us cram with flowers each threatened rift.
When the sky clouds and the wind begins to lift,
step outside to watch the treetops quiver:
catastrophe can be a kind of gift.
Am I lonely? Sometimes. Never bereft:
love given returns in time to bless its giver.
Let us cram with flowers each threatened rift:
catastrophe can be a kind of gift.
Tom McLaughlin is a Derry-born poet. His debut pamphlet, Open Houses, was published in 2021 with Marble Press. He completed an MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway and is a practice-based PhD candidate at Surrey. His poems have recently featured in anthologies by Arachne Press and Broken Sleep.