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Cumbria Times
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Steve Whitaker
Literary Editor
@stevewh16944270
6:48 AM 12th June 2022
arts

Poem of the Week: 'Together' By Robert Gibson

 
Together

flax jute cotton wire willow
wool raffia grass bamboo
even a ripped newspaper’s weasel words
may be twined braided or knotted
woven into a common bond
warp and weft
synergy from vibrant difference


As if to illustrate a sense of natural overlap and complementarity, Robert Gibson’s fine poem of condensed, serpentine power is rendered entirely without punctuation. The space between the gifts of nature is filled with the promise of enterprise, of creativity, of something even greater than intrinsic individual value, so that we are minded to recall the rough block of stone from which Michelangelo ‘imagined’ his David into existence.

The passage is seamless, the ‘warp and weft’ an alliterative underwriting of energy expended productively and in pleasing simultaneity, re-forming even the ‘weasel words’ of redundant newsprint into a collage of unitary purpose. Dovetailing, the impressionistic collection from which ‘Together’ is taken is the culmination of an Arts project whose aim was to bring together, or ‘dovetail’, disparate strands of Art into contiguous light to recreate a sense of natural harmony across the spectrums of music, art and installation. The words – the poems and the prose – are crystalline responses to the wonderful spectacle of nature and human endeavour working in constructive consonance, at a time of division and separation.


Dovetailing – Gathered Notes is available to purchase from the Grove Bookshop in Ilkley at a cost of £20, which will include a contribution to Bradford Refugee Action.

More information here