STAIRS seven poems by Mark Goodwin from paintings by Elaine Miller

68 Stoneygate Road on this staircase in the shadows where each step makes a corner there is no one but no one like some one with their story St Giles Street a short corridor leads to a door ajar   how open do you feel? 72 Tower St the black wall wide as a night the banister a brown vertigo an angular leafless tree leaning with time's wind the pain at the back of the neck from staring up to where the banisters dissolve to black and yet some old peace clings to this staircase as a warm yellow light 9 Woburn Street a grin of green banisters look down the stairs they lead down into a house into a house of sea they lead down from a whale's mouth they lead from a green landing you are standing on the green stairs lead down into a whale's guts The Ten Bells these still stairs possess speed the banisters fan out a train's cowcatcher each slender banister rung each long wooden bell swung a man or a woman tumb ling ten bells being knocked out of them Corpus Christi College here each step is a leather-bound book follow the staircase-bookcase round its corner it will land you in a room with light yellow as old pages 40 St Stephens Road flesh staircase own footsteps on own bones will self ascend or will self be coming down? will self be going to be angelic in an attic or be heading for a cellar? sometimes a cordon at the stairs' start (or end) keeps strange feet off a self's flesh steps

text © Mark Goodwin 2006 images © Elaine Miller 2006 A Raunchland Publication 2006 home