Here's the poem I wrote for Radio Manchester, which they've filmed with lots of local people. It's a response to Portia's speech "The Quality of Mercy" from the Merchant of Venice, entitled "Rain, Like Mercy".
Here's my slot on Radio Manchester discussing it with Alison and Phil
And here I am on All FM chewing the fat with Lenny the Lounge Lizard and reading this poem and others
And here's the poem for you.
Rain, like Mercy
Febuary, Manchester
with it. Drains are
overwhelmed. Cars
aquaplane, drenching passers
by. It drips
from the tents of the
makeshift city, muddies
premiership knees. It sits in
reservoirs
in hills above us, saved for
dryer times
piped to dryer places. We
built a city
on all this wet. We feel it
in our bones.
But under roofs and inside
glass there are those
untouched by it. So, shake it
off your brolly
in the bank. Let it trickle
from your coat hem
in the courts. Stamp your oozing
boots
on the town hall tiles. Let
it seep
into the dry places, dribble
on the great
and the good. Tempt them all
out in it –
from clerks to CEOs,
councillors,
chancellors and constables – shirts clinging,
socks wringing, all of them,
singing and….
Maybe, once in a lifetime,
all of us
should dance naked in it.
Understand
mercy through the skin, flesh
prickled
with it, carrying it with us
in our blood.
