Two Poems by Jeremy Wikeley

Their House

Their house is a ship in the wind
and the wind chimes chime all night
like people waiting to get in,

like people waiting in the walls,
though these rooms have been emptied
now for months and the bamboo

grows between paving stones and
grape vines tangle the chimes.
A poet would say all wood wants

to grow again. A gardener, only
your grape vine needs pruning
and if I was an architect I would

build boats, because their house
is a ship in the wind and it floats
on something wider and deeper than water.

Spring Song

The blossom is early
on the cherry tree
and like so many things
it reminds me of me.

White buds unfurling
in the winter light…
when I think about you
I wake in the night.

Jeremy Wikeley lives and works in London, where he runs Headless Poet, a new small press specialising in the art of the introduction, and serves as a trustee of the Winchester Poetry Festival.