Chanterelle

I’m delighted to have Angela Leighton’s permission to reproduce her beautiful poem, featured in the Review section of the Guardian last Saturday.

Chanterelle

L’incanto, se non il canto. Montale

Apricot flesh, a fluted neck,
leaf-mould grown to a perfect ear-lobe,
cocked, a queer hat, horn of gold,
a honeycomb on its own foothold,

 

and light-lorn in a trash of leaves
this fat of the earth, sumptuous geste,
thumbing its right to stop my step,
trusting a name to sing of itself:

 

and ‘sing’ is exact – a top-string A
pitched in thin air, as clear as day,
draws out the chant in enchantment’s weather,
and makes a sound, a little singer.

• from The Messages by Angela Leighton, published by Shoestring Press at £9