Poetry – Issue 4 | April 2009
Two Poems by Priscilla Atkins
Belle-Ilse-en-Mer
Brittany isle frequented by Proust,
and other French artists
How many times
have I tongued the blue-violet
berries of French syllables,
repeated them as if
they were injunction,
mantra, beads strung and handed
to me personally
by a brown-eyed writer,
whose cowled, close-set irises
had borne witness
through the dark hours,
each pupil pierced with knowledge.
How many summer evenings
have I pulled my life up
to a sky-lit wicker table
and set my sights
on real, or magical places—
Illiers or Combray—
and further, fourteen miles
by train, then by boat,
chased by froth-flecked waves
white as apple blossoms.
How many times
have I made the trip,
signed my name
on the salt-ripe sea.
About the author
Priscilla Atkins’s poetry has traveled to Poetry London and to The Dalhousie Review. Among other pretty homes for her work include Bayou, The Bellingham Review, Salmagundi, and Shenandoah.
She has been to Europe several times and to practically every state in the United States. Her most memorable trip was to Hawaii, where she stayed for ten years. Her current layover is in Holland, Michigan.
Next in Poetry: Romances
Previously in Poetry: Two Poems by Martin Ott
