JAMES SUTHERLAND-SMITH
POET, TRANSLATOR, CRITIC
Welcome to my website.
This is my latest collection published in November 2008.

I am now working only part time as a teacher. It is now time for me to devote myself to writing poems.

This is a poem from my cycle of poems or long poem "Mouth." It has already appeared on the Bow-Wow Shop















ROSECHAFER





Rose chafer, green knight in miniature,

Cumbersome in upper body armour

Whose chitin can shimmer gold

At a slight angle to the sun,

Underparts a jointed pure copper,



Shinning the stalk of a white flower

In stops and starts like an elderly beachcomber

After coconuts, tiny head swivelling

As it munches pollen, legs notched forpurchase,

Does not crawl, but clings to my knuckles



As I place it on the edge of a petal

Of a pink Jubilee rose

Where it hangs like a jewel

From a pierced lip until it whirrs

Helicopter rotor blades of wings and soars.