Richard Scott was born in London in 1981. His poems have appeared widely in magazines including Poetry Review, Poetry London and Butt Magazine. He has been a winner of the Wasafiri New Writing Prize, a Jerwood/Arvon Poetry Mentee and a member of the Aldeburgh 8. He teaches poetry at the University of Hertfordshire and talks about opera and libretti on Resonance FM. His pamphlet Wound is published by Rialto (2016).
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
