Claire Lynn teaches Creative Writing around Northumberland. Her poems have been placed in various competitions including the Bridport Prize (1999) and Wasafiri (2017), published in various anthologies including Virago’s “The Nerve”, and magazines such as Butcher’s Dog. Her poem Sixteen Summers was commissioned by the Ilkley Literature Festival 2022.
My Hands, Reaching
…Hebrides, Bailey, Fair Isle, Faeroes
west veering northwest six to gale eight…
I listen for you on stormy nights,
catch notes of your song
as the wind swirls in the chimney.
I wait for you on spring mornings
where the full moon has pulled the tide
past the strandline, hear your laughter
in the gulls’ cries.
I watch for you from the top of the dunes
when larks pierce the sky like stars
and the horizon shimmers into mirage,
the sun warm as your palm
in the small of my back.
I feel for you through the cottons and silks
that stroke my arms from their clattering hangers,
groping through mothballed darkness
for the heavy pelt of your sealskin coat;
my hands, reaching into emptiness,
meet only each other.