Elizabeth Jennings citations

“Poets work upon and through each other.”

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Elizabeth Jennings

Every Changing Shape, Carcanet Press Ltd ISBN 978-1857542479

“It was a yellow voice, a high, shrill treble in the nursery
White always and high, I remember it so,
White cupboard, off-white table, mugs, dolls’ faces
And I was four or five. The garden could have been
Miles away. We were taken down to the green
Asparagus beds, the cut lawn, and the smell of it
Comes each summer after rain when white returns. Our bird,
A canary called Peter, sang behind bars. The black and white cat
Curled and snoozed by the fire and danger was far away.”

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Elizabeth Jennings

" A Bird in the House" in Collected Poems (Carcanet, 1987)

“When I re-read my past work I can see a development to such an effect, indeed, that some of them no longer seem to be any part of me.”

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Elizabeth Jennings

Preface to Collected Poetry, Carconet Press, Manchester 1986