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Full Moon
31 May 2026
Sarah
Raybould
Her Poppy Earrings
After The Blue Dress
by Saeed Jones
Her earrings are a poppy field are a battlefield, are drops of blood
in trenches roll out to sea, are a pricked finger in a fairy tale, a
spinning wheel stitch bleeding hearts to a hummingbird’s wing,
are the drip, drip of candle wax are the drip of snow on throbbing hands,
are two hearts beating are the pulse of arteries, are the embers of Mars
and Jupiter, are rubies on Pandora’s clock a single rose, rubies
swinging from a chandelier, are petals falling
to wedding bells in a graveyard with ghosts, are in time with the tack-
tack of my music teacher’s metronome, the pendulum
inside the grandfather clock at midnight, are memories
of Ayre’s Rock in the evening sun sift through the sieve of her mind,
are red poets lined up in trenches, are poppies
swaying.
Behind the poem...
Reading Saeed Jones’ The Blue Dress for the first time was spell-binding. You really need to hear him read it aloud to fully appreciate its energy. Jones skilfully creates momentum with a tsunami of imagery generated from one object. I was drawn to the way he propels us through his poem into a journey of possibility, imagination, acceptance. I was also desperate to recreate this for myself. Inspiration came from a home visit to a dementia patient during the Month of Remembrance. Surrounded by a thousand memories, she wore poppy earrings.