Two Poems by Ben Wilkinson

Portrait of the Artist Asleep

after Verlaine

She looks for all the world like some deadbeat angel,
foetal but hopeful, an inch of light haloing

her temple. She’s restless, sure, half mumbling
to herself as the door rocks gently in its frame,

stirred by a breeze the way her waking thoughts
follow whatever her eyes light on, even you.

Truth is, she’ll be up and gone before you know,
back among the world and brilliant with it,

and you, friend, won’t even make a painting
or poem, whichever she turns her hand to next.

You’re no more her muse than the lamp distilled
in the mirror she’ll fix her face in before she leaves.

You Can See How It Was

Home is just odd. Days it sort of waits there,
a cave full of nothing, or stalactites
you negotiate by feel when the light peters
and fades. Foxhole we hate to love, it’s like
a cosy lover one week, living underwater

the next. Don’t get me wrong: you need one,
and without, by choice or cruelty, we clock
reality, like the woodsman without a gun
facing a grizzly. But look at the place. A mock
museum, curated by its one strange specimen.  

Ben Wilkinson’s poetry collections are Way More Than Luck (2018) and Same Difference (2022), both published by Seren. His poetry has appeared widely in publications including the Guardian, New Statesman, The Poetry Review, The Spectator, and the TLS, and has won prizes including the Poetry Business Competition and a Northern Writers’ Award. For over a decade he has reviewed contemporary poetry for the Guardian, The Poetry Review, and the TLS. He is the author of a reader’s guide to the poetry of Don Paterson (Liverpool University Press, 2021).