Siân Norris presents a poem as part of her residency here at Wales Arts Review for A.i.R, The Train which explores darkness and uncertainty. Throughout 2017 these artists, including Siân Norris will take a leading creative role in what Wales Arts Review publishes, centring their skills on a challenging project over the course of a month. We were inundated with applications, receiving hundreds of emails about the positions, and it was no easy task whittling down all that talent to this final eleven. Our team of six editors debated long into the night, and in the end, we decided on a collection of people who we most want to work with, and whose work excites us. We think you will be excited by them too.
Throughout her residency, she will be sharing poems, short stories and conversations that explore what home means; that tell stories about travel; that look at constructions and types of home; that asks what makes a home and what it means to be exiled from home, and that more generally reflect on travel and being away from home.
The Train by Siân Norris | An Exploration of darkness and uncertainty
The train hasn’t turned on its lights.
Plunges into the tunnel regardless.
An ancient darkness.
I take off my sunglasses,
blink mole-sighted.
The darkness remains
and with it a
rising urge to scream
and I start to think that,
maybe,
I’m still
sleeping.
That, maybe,
this dark length is a
nightmare
from which I’ll soon
wake up.
I want to wake up from nightmares to
you.
To your heavy sleepiness beside me.
To roll across
and nudge my face rodent-like
against the weight of your arm.
I think I’m falling.
I don’t know what to do.
The darkness fades to rain.
I’ve no coat.
Wearing sandals.
You laugh at my ineptitude.
Wrap me up in your arms,
my coat.
This contribution by Siân Norris is part of the Artists in Residence series.
(image credit: John Davies)
