The Ofi Press Magazine

International Poetry and Literature from Mexico City

Angela Topping: 1 Poem Published

Poem by Angela Topping (UK)

Published in The Ofi Press issue 45

 

  

 

Steps

 

Steps tempt

 the climber to discoveries:

the bell tower

            with its twisting promise of views;

the slippy staircase

            of a short cut offering itself

through a narrow alley

            to emerge part way up a known street;

rough steps cut into a garden

            or dizzy fellside

stained with lichen and moss

            harbouring fireweed, dandelion

a friendly handrail to haul up

            faltering steps of one

who years ago would have run them.

So steps measure

more than heights or depths,

they count frailties and years.

About the Poet

Angela Topping is the author of seven collections from reputable presses including Stride, Salt, Lapwing and Mother’s Milk Books. Her next collection is forthcoming from Red Squirrel Press in 2016. Her work has been widely published in many magazines including Poetry Review and London Magazine. She has also edited and co-edited several anthologies and writes critical books for Greenwich Exchange. In 2013, she was a writer in residence at Gladstone’s Library, Hawarden. Her poems have won several prizes.

Image: 'Torre Lapillo' by Marco Fedele.