RUPERT LOYDELL is a writer and visual artist currently living in Cornwall. His poems have been widely published, most recently in Abridged, International Times, Litter, M58, Melange, Noon, Osiris and The Soliloquist. His book of prose poems, The Weight of Air, is forthcoming from KFS Press, and Recuperative Theology, a collaboration with H.L. Hix, from Amethyst Press
DOWN THE LINE
All we can do is try to find others
who see the world the same way
we do, use lines and colour in
a similar manner, trying to make
sense of where we find ourselves
and what is around us. How did
we end up here, what are all
these people saying, how come
they have no interest in paint
or words? Look at that sky,
listen to the birds, the way
the clouds spread out tonight
as the sun fades again, pink
then orange, blue and grey.
We paint only for ourselves
and hope others might be
looking and listening down
the line, believe in a moment
where things make sense.
RUPERT LOYDELL is the editor of Stride magazine, contributing editor to International Times and a writer and abstract artist. He has many books of poetry and several collaborative publications in print and has edited anthologies for Shearsman, KFS and Salt. His critical writing has appeared in Punk & Post-Punk (he is a member of the journal’s editorial board), Journal of Writing and Creative Practice, New Writing, English, Text, Axon, Short Fiction in Theory and Practice, Musicology Research, Revenant, The Quint: an interdisciplinary journal from the north, and Journal of Visual Art Practice. He has also contributed chapters to Brian Eno. Oblique Music (Bloomsbury, 2016), Critical Essays on Twin Peaks: The Return (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), Music in Twin Peaks: Listen to the Sounds (Routledge, 2021) and Bodies, Noise and Power in Industrial Music (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022)