Finistere by Elizabeth Speller

This is the Pointe du Raz,
this place is Finistere,
the fall, the undertow, the earth's end where
my father's face is bones beneath the feathers of his blown back hair.
Tears in his mica eyes, spray on his skin
here on the Pointe du raz the salted man leans in
to the force of wind and the rough, wet air.
Keep blowing east to landfall, wind
from sea to earth, from dark beyond
the razor's edge of Finistere;
keep him keep all my safety here.

Poet of the Month: Elizabeth Speller

Cyprus Well Stories was invited to the Bridport Prize 2008 celebrations and we had a wonderful time. The anthology of winners is brilliant, and is available now at www.bridportprize.org.uk.

One poem really stood out for us personally, and that was 'Finistere' by Elizabeth Speller. In fact we think it's beautiful, so Elizabeth is our Poet of the Month for December.

Elizabeth Speller lives in Gloucestershire. She reads Classics as a mature student at Lucy Cavendish Colledge, Cambridge University, and held a Hosking Houses Residency in 2008. She has written for publications as diverse as The Big Issue, New Statesman, Sunday Times, Independent, Financial Times and Vogue, has published four non-fiction books and her poetry appears in anthologies. She used her own words with those of Milton and Shakespeare in a libretto, 'Farewell', composed by Michael Berkeley and commissioned by Paul McCartney for his wife, Linda. This year she has been a winner in both the Ledbury and Bridport prizes. Her first novel, Death of an Unknown Warrior will be published by Virago in 2009.

We hope you like this poem as much as we do, and we'd like to thank Frances and Lindsay and all at the Bridport Prize and Bridport Arts Centre for looking after us so well!