No 34 - Spring 2006 MP3 Issue contents of this issue bibliographic notice other issues online about this magazine search other magazines Susan Wicks Northern Lights Susan Wicks reading Northern Lights 969.6 KB Play  Right click here and select save to download the audio file. Imagine a pale green liquid rippling on the glass of your window, a blush in the bottom corner that used to be flame or sunset. Imagine the light running on the pane in a sudden fountain, the glass cold under your fingers, the sky unbroken, icy. Imagine the greens of snow, the blues of a trapped river, a street’s defiant welcome passing in a flash of neon. Outside, a town’s breath freezes, the curved rim of the mountains stretches, glitters to the horizon. Beyond this snow-swept place the people walk in greyness. You unroll your bed, stretch out with your hands behind your head to watch this Arctic night wheel on its brightest stars, and the show only beginning. Susan Wicks’ most recent collection, Night Toad: New and Selected Poems (Bloodaxe 2003), was a PBS Recommendation. She is Director of the Centre for Creative Writing at the University of Kent. page(s) 77   Poetry Library Royal Festival Hall Hayward Gallery