£4.50

In 1972, Peter Cash, wrote his B.A. dissertation on the poetry of Laurie Lee (1914-1996). Written in Lee’s style, these ten lyrics imply a synaesthetic association between an appreciation of the rural world and an enjoyment of sexual experience, suggesting that the two can be simultaneous and equally sensuous.

Originally commissioned by Gallery Five as a series of poem-cards, they record adolescent discoveries and celebrate adolescent satisfactions, but then say goodbye to them. Accordingly, the collection is notable for its vivid imagery, but also for its rueful tone … The poet exults in the sensations of his first embraces, but ultimately rues the transitoriness of these tactile thrills. He is ‘a magician in the rain’ in that he can transform a girl by his touch, but then find himself desolate without her.

WENDY’S TUNE

Flies snooze
on the kitchen sill
and the harvesters in the back field
 lunch still.
 I chew
fat stalks from the green-flowing lawn 
and contemplate the country beauty of you.

Sparrows speed
out of the bushes
and plane across the crackling stubble;
 and thrushes
 that flare 
through the white smoke of the afternoon
drop dry poppy-seeds upon your barley hair.

Drones sip
the hot honeysuckle
and young rabbits spurt into the stooks.
  You chuckle 
  and your breasts rise
as I tickle your throat with a soft stem
and watch the wild notes chime in your eyes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Cash was born on 31st December 1949 in Skegness, Lincolnshire. He was educated at Skegness Grammar School and studied English and Philosophy at The University of Nottingham where he won The Kirke White Poetry Prize (1970), The Cooper Award for Part I in English Studies (1971) and The Marsden Prize for Best Student of the Year (1972).

At The Nottingham Poetry Society, he won The Lake Aske Memorial Award for three consecutive years: 1969, 1970 and 1971. In 1975, he received an Eric Gregory Award; in 1982, he won a prize in The National Poetry Competition.

Since 1977, he has been a teacher of English and Games at Trent College in Derbyshire. In 1980, he completed his M. Phil. thesis: Romantic Poets of the Twentieth Century.

He loves cats and playing cricket.