Nigel Forde began his career as an actor at York Theatre Royal. He works primarily, now, as a writer. He has won several poetry prizes, and a musical written with Arnold Wesker was premiered recently in Japan. He wrote the screenplay for three of BBC 2’s animated series Testament, one of which won an EMMY, and his latest film was awarded the Special Distinction at the 2002 Anneçy International Animation Festival. He wrote two films in Norman Stone’s series ‘Tales from the Madhouse’ and the script for Channel 4's experimental ‘Play in a Week’. He has published eight books to date including four of poetry, a critical anthology of G.K.Chesterton, and a study of Literature and belief: The Lantern and the Looking-Glass. His plays Friendly Fire, High Tide and The Last Cuckoo are touring at the moment in Britain and the USA, His latest book of poems A Map of the Territory, was published in November 2003 by Oxford/Carcanet. In Pocklington he runs a branch of the Poetry Society’s Poetry School.
Quelle: poetry p f

The Law of Diminishing Departures

I make tea from the water that you boiled
Before you left; use your special cup.
I choose this book because you read it last.
The fire I’ve kept in for days: these flames
Are still the ones you saw. The milk jug? Stet,
Because you left it there. I fool myself
With charms, connections, that should make you real
But punch your absence into every act.

I keep things too long; candles I won’t burn,
Logs, ditto, saved for feasts or rainy days;
The chances are tomorrow could be worse.
And now it is. I’ve kept you long enough.
I study to enjoy the chilly space
That closes round my hand instead of yours,
And walk on grass to watch the rising moon
Because you might be watching too. Because.

in collection A Map of the Territory, 2003, Carcanet/OxfordPoets
ISBN-10: 1 90303 969 X, ISBN-13: 978 1 903 03969 4