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Rob Miles: a poem



School Reunion


His gaze, a sea-blue-green, his arms

still golden and still baling-raw, his voice

no longer stretched

and low as all those years ago

in this same field

asking us to not disturb

that calmly circling horse – its bale

an ingot melting

and our thin flames no match

for such a sunset anyway – this time

he brushes by, not shy

like then, but so in charge, helping

carry coats and bags

again, and I now know for sure that he

will no more keep his mind

from wayward sparks than I

can ever keep my eyes from closing

on a fire, recall

a slow white shadow, steady on its dial

in the always almost dark.



Rob Miles is from Devon and he lives in West Yorkshire, UK. He has taught Hispanic and visual-cultural studies at the universities of Hull, Leeds, Portsmouth and Liverpool. His poetry has appeared widely in anthologies and magazines and he has won various competitions, including the Philip Larkin Prize, judged by Don Paterson, the Resurgence Ecopoetry Prize, judged by Imtiaz Dharker and Jo Shapcott, and the Poets & Players Prize, judged by Sinéad Morrissey. Rob has poems recently published or forthcoming in Stand, Poetry News, Mediterranean Poetry, Poetry Wales and Australian Book Review.

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