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  1. Culture
27 February 2018

The NS Poem: Saint of Labour

A new poem by Kathleen Winter.

By Kathleen Winter

I met a man a man who won’t make money.
Extreme, he peels away from the medium

like a soaked label leaving it, listener
in this space of bottomless story.

What part was real, what part imagined
is past, almost past knowing, wind of hay rising

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a hundred yards in the sky, ghost coach
coursing the lake’s edge on a wooden road

after May light bleeds away to sea,
eels of light, ribboning.

A thousand years later they burned
the ancient hand-made roads, dug them

up into fire, cremating how many hours,
how many lives of labour.

I watch fire tearing sunwise after dark.
This man must be still to breathe,

hear sheep bleat out to Skellig peaks.
Long work he does to be idle, figure

how to make the sea’s faces on paper.
Among visitors in ruined cottages

we’re the ones whose stained fingers
speak the same solitude.

Kathleen Winter was born in Texas and lives in California. She is the author of two collections, Nostalgia for the Criminal Past and I will not kick my friends, both published by Elixir Press

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This article appears in the 21 Feb 2018 issue of the New Statesman, Sunni vs Shia

Select and enter your email address Your weekly guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture every Saturday. The best way to sign up for The Saturday Read is via saturdayread.substack.com The New Statesman's quick and essential guide to the news and politics of the day. The best way to sign up for Morning Call is via morningcall.substack.com Our Thursday ideas newsletter, delving into philosophy, criticism, and intellectual history. The best way to sign up for The Salvo is via thesalvo.substack.com Stay up to date with NS events, subscription offers & updates. Weekly analysis of the shift to a new economy from the New Statesman's Spotlight on Policy team. The best way to sign up for The Green Transition is via spotlightonpolicy.substack.com
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