A Poem by Penelope Shuttle

Turner’s Bedroom, Hotel Europe, Venice, 1840

Turner,
hero of one hundred fist fights
with light,
he alters the sky
by using his eye as a jeweller’s hammer
introduces us to part of a bridge
hidden for centuries behind Venice’s back
pours out fineries of smoke-brightened vapour
a stretch of lagoon is stippled-alive
by washes of wheeling headstrong colour
he makes every cloud and rainbow his servant
the waterway gleams like lionskin
or the nispero’s cousin,
the apple’s sister

Penelope Shuttle was born near London and has lived in Cornwall since 1970.  Shuttle’s thirteenth collection, Lyonesse, appeared from Bloodaxe Books in June 2021, was Observer Poetry Book of the Month for July, and longlisted for the Laurel Prize. Noah, a pamphlet, appeared in September 2023 from Broken Sleep Books.  Shuttle is President of the Falmouth Poetry Group. A new collection, History of the Child, is out now from Bloodaxe Books.