Poem of the week: Briars by Frank Ormsby

No greenery pins itself to the season
as the briars do, then shares the season's
imminent burst of self, the spring offensive
on both sides of a lane that means the surrender
of winter. They twist into barbed wire,
or the hooked thorns piercing a saviour's brow,
or glint on the front cover of the latest war diary.
In their final struggle they are drunk and disorderly again.

Frank Ormsby’s new collection is The Rain Barrel (Bloodaxe). Previous recent collections are The Darkness of Snow and Goat’s Milk (both Bloodaxe). He is the new Ireland Professor of Poetry 2019-2022.

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