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Likestarlings is a place for talking in poems. We pair poets with poets and they write a sequence of six new works by responding in turn to one another. Our palaver blog goes beyond poetry to discuss collaboration in theory and in practice. Please take a look, and feel free to add comments, opinions and suggestions here. Read poems here
 

A splutter of experimental oxygen


Dangerous boyfriend, junk the artful crampons:
banister the knife-edge all the way down to Safecamp 1.

I long to release your sealants, your ragged salopets.
We can share, dangerous girlfriend,
a splutter of experimental oxygen
(I can just hear the obstruction in your harsh breathing apparatus:
I have the fluids for soothing and for sound).

Here, eagles wouldn’t dare –
after all, they’re merely natural.
If they could begin to match the mountaineer
in the energy of such imagination
they’d just like to be flags
or, witless, compete in some abstract ritual.
Real mountaineers conquer the summit
because it’s not there.