Richard Scott was born in London in 1981. His pamphlet Wound, published by Rialto, won the Michael Marks Poetry Award 2016. His poem Crocodile won the 2017 Poetry London Competition. His debut collection is forthcoming from Faber & Faber in April 2018.
Jeanne Baré Observes the Inlet
Roosting starlings watch the river continue
its labour. Anglers draw their boats up
onto the sand, erasing the hoof prints of cattle
who retreat into the violet cedars.
And as if they know they are alone
perch rise up out of the dark,
wake the inlet and drive the water mad
grasping for damselfly, beetles, boatmen,
mosquitoes, hawk moth and paper wasp.
This water sport soundtracks the dusk
inestimable leaps into that other world
through the fearsome belt of oxygen.
All of us are capable of great change;
you only have to watch the fish transform
into dark birds swooping the surface at enormous speed
to know.
Richard Scott
