December 2004 Poem of the month

Raspberries The way we can't remember heat, forget the sweat and how we wore a weightless shirt on chafing skin, the way we lose the taste of raspberries, each winter; but know at once, come sharp July, the vein burning in the curtain, and from that light - the block of sun on hot crushed sheets - the blazing world we'll walk in, was how it was, your touch. Nor the rest, not how we left, the drunkenness, just your half-stifled, clumsy, frightened reach, my uncurled hand, our fingers, meshed, -like the first dazzled flinch from heat or between the teeth, pips, a metal taste. By Kate Clanchy, from her collection Samarkand (Picador, 1999)

About the poet Kate Clanchy was born in Glasgow in 1965 and educated in Edinburgh and Oxford. After spending several years in London, she moved to Oxford where she now works as a teacher, journalist and freelance writer. As well as teaching Creative Writing at the Arvon Foundation, she makes regular contributions to the Guardian newspaper, writes for radio and broadcasts on the World Service and BBC Radio 3 & 4. As part of the Poetry Society's Poetry Places scheme, Kate was Poet in Residence for the Red Cross in the UK. Kate Clanchy has written two prize-winning collections of poetry - Samarkand from which Raspberries is taken, was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year) and also won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award. Her other collection, Slattern, won the Forward Poetry Prize (Best First Collection) and a Somerset Maugham Award. Her poetry has been broadcast by BBC Radio as well as being published by several newspapers and magazines. Kate's latest collection of poetry - Newborn (Picador, 2004) - is a collection of poems about pregnancy, birth and caring for a new baby. This collection was shortlisted in the Best Collection category for the 2004 Forward Prize for Poetry.

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