StAnza Presents...

Eleanor Livingstone

At 87

(From Even the Sea, 2010)

Imperfect or perfect,

historic or not,

she can’t remember dinner

never mind our visit yesterday:

the past in all its forms

and personal conjunctions

is going, going, gone;

the future’s out of sight

beyond a hush of curtain.

Living in the present tense

this moment—now—today

she sleeps though most of it.

Eleanor Livingstone is a poet and editor, and was StAnza’s festival director until March 2021. Her first full collection, Even the Sea (Red Squirrel Press, 2010), now in a second edition, was shortlisted for the 2010 inaugural London New Poetry award for first collections. Her other publications include The Last King of Fife (HappenStance, 2005), A Sampler (HappenStance, 2008) and as editor Skein of Geese (The Shed Press, 2008), Migraasje: Versions in Scots and Shetlandic (Stravaigers, 2008), Bridging the Continental Divide (StAnza, 2015), Necessarily Looking Backward (StAnza, 2018) and The Arch (StAnza, 2019).

StAnza brings poetry to audiences and enables encounters with poetry through events and projects in Scotland and beyond, especially their annual spring festival in St Andrews.

www.stanzapoetry.org

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