Devotion
‘Devotion is full of arrows.’ Joanna Klink
I’m wounded. But you know that.
You send the shafts, designed to hit
where it counts. You give with one hand,
excise with the other. I dream of leaving,
but being without you is more
impossible than being with.
I’m still here, that’s the most I can say.
Is clemency granted for hanging on?
Mercy given for trying to turn
things around? I have endeavoured
to do what was asked. Failed, I know.
You claim this is love – your silence,
your restless fingertips. Will we ever sit
in the sun together, declare it finished?
Rosie Jackson, from Devon, England, is widely published and has won many poetry awards, including 1st prizes Indigo Dreams 2026, Watchet 2026, Red Shed 2025, Teignmouth 2021, Hedgehog 2020, Poetry Space 2019, Wells 2018, Stanley Spencer Competition 2017, short-listed in Mslexia 2025. She has taught at universities, including East Anglia; her spiritual life has taken her to India and the United States. Collections include Love Leans over the Table (Two Rivers Press, 2023), Light Makes it Easy (2022), Two Girls and a Beehive: Poems about Stanley Spencer (2020). ‘a rare poet of transcendence’ Bel Mooney. ‘gorgeously original’ Jane Hirshfield. http://www.rosiejackson.org.uk
Amethyst Review 