Michael Curtis grew up in Liverpool and now lives in Kent and the Isle of Man. He has given readings and run creative writing workshops for all ages at numerous venues across Europe and has worked in arts, libraries and literature development. He was Writer in Residence at the Metropole Arts Centre, Folkestone and the Arts Council England conference, Great Expectations. His ninth poetry collection, Weeks, was published by Urban Fox Press in November 2007 and his first children’s book, The Black Hound was published by The Manx Experience in 2006. Walking Water, a new sequence, is due to be published in French and English by Vanneaux Editions, Picardy in 2008.

Quelle: poetry p f

Another Life
[Acropolis, Mycenae, Greece]

You were here, she says,
in another life:
worshipped perpendicular ghosts,
declaimed blood
to an amphitheatre of poppies.

Perhaps. I stand watch
in April sunlight,
examine the mountains
for signs of life, small prey,
friend or foe stepping stones:

settle to this body,
my face beaten in gold,
my father on an upright slab.
I take a breath and stretch,
enter the beehive tomb:

the floor sinks and springs
on the vast hidden skin
that tenses under Mycenae.
My spirit sags, then rises,
then somersaults into another life.

published (with French translation) on the
Namur Maison de la Poesie website, 2006
and in collection Long Haul, 2005,
Redbeck Press, ISBN 1-904338-26-7