Helen Farish

Helen Farish Poems

Helen Farish Biography

Helen Farish (born 1962 Cumbria) is a British poet. She received her B.A. from University of Durham, M.A. and Ph.D. from Oxford Brookes University. She lectured in creative writing at Sheffield Hallam University. She has been a Fellow at Hawthornden International Centre for Writers and was the first female Poet in Residence at the Wordsworth Trust (2004-5). She has also been a Visiting Lecturer at Sewanee University, and a Visiting Scholar at the University of New Hampshire. Beginning 2007, she lectures full-time at Lancaster University, in the department of English and Creative Writing. She now lives in Cumbria.)

The Best Poem Of Helen Farish

Athens

Did you take me for a Greek word?
Most do, but I pre-date the Greeks.

I used to describe a limestone plateau
where dusty snakes and small owls lived

with a people from whose mouths emerged
my extensive family. I miss the sound

of my original kin as I muck in
with this new crowd, biting my tongue

when I hear two or even three words stuck
together to describe skies my first family

got in a syllable - skies that occur at nightfall
in Attica after days of languor in late August

(you know the ones). But as I mourn the fall
in standards, I tell myself to be grateful

I'm uttered without nostalgia and remain
the name of this place. I'd hate to join Siam,

Byzantium, Saigon, Rangoon, Bombay -
beautiful words in various stages of decay.

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