Lifesaving Poems: Denise Riley’s ‘A Misremembered Lyric’

If you ever see this…
Thank you

Anthony Wilson

A Misremembered Lyric, by Denise Riley

I heard this poem for the first time a week ago, at the Bodmin Moor Poetry Festival, lovingly and expertly curated by David Woolley and Ann Gray. If you don’t know it, get down there. It is beautiful space where art and landcsape and music and poetry intersect and feed off each other. Next year’s dates are 27-29 May. Book yourself in for the whole weekend, which is what I’m going to do. You won’t regret it.

The reading in question was the closing performance of the Saturday night’s festivities, a showcase of young talent from the South West. The evening opened with poets reading their own and others’ work, including this extraordinary poem of Denise Riley. In a faultless rendition of the poem, our speaker expertly guided us through the poem’s breathtaking shifts and turns which demand complete attentiveness from the…

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Heart

My hand was curled up,

Sheltering my heart.

But what happens if I move my hand?

It will pour out-

It’s endless years of being strong when others couldn’t

has worn it to an unrecognisable pulp;

A few tendons wrapped around patches of red muscle.

But with your hand holding mine safe-

My heart is going to grow back to a bigger size than before.

And I just wanted to say-

Thank you in advance.

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