The images used in Paul Brookes’ ekphrastic challenge, as well as all the poems they inspired, are shared on his blog here.

Keeping

We press the juice from things,
barrel them away barriqued and bonded,
waiting for the right moment to taste,
retaste, savour the past.

In the dark, memory reforms, transforms,
spreads arms benignly where a fist once shook,
cracking happiness from side to side.

In the dark they squirm, elvers, quicksilver,
insaissisables, running from Sargasso
to the pool slowly emptying in summer drought.

We hoard the best until it spoils,
deaf to the cherry tree whispering, Let go.
Spring tree, winter tree, both bloom white,
purer than your yellowing pages.