Tower
catastrophe of feather across skin / voices like hands / palms slick with / what / is that fear / & through your eyelids / stutter of colour / moth wings beating bared / lightbulbs & something like / shame rising / heat / can you feel it / sleep come apart / like a bird / crumpled on a wet street / eight or more stories down / or more / like walls / made tender / with fire / and heat pressing through / pressing / a hand on your chest / a stone / hard to breathe / getting / harder / even the sky / pressed flat / against glass / cracked windows / so close / heaven just / beyond / below / cataract of faces / like tarnished coins / arms raised / they can’t hold / the air / for long / by the time you leap / free / unfurl / your hands are nothing / like wings
Poems by Patrick James Errington feature in journals & anthologies such as Best New Poets, Boston Review, The Iowa Review, Oxford Poetry, Copper Nickel, The Cincinnati Review, The Poetry Review, and wildness, as well as in two chapbooks, Glean (2018) & Field Studies (2019). His work has also been awarded numerous prizes, including The London Magazine Poetry Prize, the National Poetry Competition (UK), and The Callan Gordon Award from the Scottish Book Trust. Originally from Alberta, Canada, Patrick now lives in Scotland where he researches poetics and teaches creative writing at the University of Edinburgh.