TED
CAROLAN



SELECTED POEMS



SELECTED POEMS





Teddy returns to share more of his wonderful work with us. A graduate from the University of Nottingham, Ted is currently working on a novella, which we hope to see in 2021. The poem's influences span from the prose of Claire Keegan and Maggie Nelson, to the poetry of Frank O'Hara and Mary Oliver.


Take a read and enjoy the delicate rhythms of Ted's work.



COOKIE





You are given a compass

all the dials say guilt


You spin the hand

like you’re making a noise


You walk corridors with no coordinates

hunting for the next fortune cookie


You whisper aphorisms

as if someone has their ear cupped


Waiting

on the other side of the wind rose

​



RIPTIDE





We were walking through the Heath when I told you

I almost drowned as a child


It was a riptide

and I was too far out


They say you must swim parallel to escape its grasp

only this is no maelstrom I have ever encountered


I swirl like a coin in a funnel

a two dimensional fish


Knowing only up

and down


The water is clear and brilliant

the shore swathed with maquettes​



PING





time is elastic

kettle boiling is flaccid

new fingers tracing collarbones in the morning are tightly-strung

elastic bands

stretching far back

should

allow for an accurate shot given how tension is a bit like yin and yang


so why do some elastic bands

stretched twice across the equator

have hearts that quiver at the fabric of the world

shooting off on tangents one can only assume as

part of the fourth dimension



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