This week’s Featured Poet is Daniel Watkins
Daniel Watkins has just finished an MA in Creative Writing at Newcastle. He likes writing, but is sometimes unsure about whether writing likes him. He tends to write poems concerning trivial and ordinary things because quite often they turn out to be the most interesting.
Stalemate
A dog sees himself in glass.
He has never seen himself before.
He does not recognise himself.
A first half-second of curiosity
lowers his head and heightens his back,
lowers the other dog’s head
and heightens the other dog’s back,
before commanding instinct
releases frontline barks.
The enemy barks equally,
and he retreats,
the other dog retreats,
skidding backwards over tiles
with a sound like
vehicles driving over stones.
He approaches again.
The other dog does likewise.
A second wave of courageous attack is
returned with still equal veracity.
A leap back this time
– looks almost playful –
but no fear.
He stares defiance at the other dog.
The other dog stares too.
Nose to nose
their eyes match,
an unending
stalemate
Want to see your poems featured here? Drop me a line to claire@onenightstanzas.com!
Don’t forget The One Night Stanzas Store, my Etsy store, and their little sister, Edinburgh Vintage!
Tags: advice for young writers, featured poet daniel watkins, publishing, resources for young writers, young poets
August 13th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Hurray! I love dog poems. This one is funny.
August 14th, 2009 at 10:04 am
[…] from Featured Poet Daniel Watkins Daniel’s poem from yesterday was Stalemate — interview and the final poem tomorrow. In the meantime, […]
August 15th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Oh, this was wonderful!
:)
November 3rd, 2010 at 2:44 am
Hey, I looked for this blog upon Bing and just wanted to state just superb study. We would have to agree with this, thanks again!
November 3rd, 2010 at 4:49 pm
Thanks for post \o/
May 21st, 2014 at 7:11 pm
cutting hair…
…