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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


Rosechafer, 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 for purchase,
it does not crawl, but clings to my knuckles

when I place 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.