The Poetry Society (Home Page)

Ian Pindar
Mrs Beltinska in the Bath

Pavel in profile

his eye at the spy-hole

watches Mrs Beltinska in the bath.

Steam from the spy-hole

rises and unravels in the dark

cold apartment at his back,

where a TV with the sound down

shows the River Vltava

bursting its banks.

And as Prague’s metro floods

and the Mala Strana floods

and the Waldstein Palace floods

and the National Theatre floods

and the Kampa Modern Art Museum floods,

Mrs Beltinska sinks her treasures in the suds.

The first Czech bible (1488) is drowned

in sewage water, but the warm orange glow

from Mrs Beltinska’s bathroom

coming through the spy-hole

gives an odd kind of halo

to Pavel’s head seen from behind.

Mrs Beltinska in the Bath was the runner-up in last year's National Poetry Competition and has been shortlisted for this year's Forward Prize for Best Single Poem.

Poetry Society Events

30
Oct Poetry Surgery with Kona Macphee

Poetry Cafe Events>

September news

1 George Hitchcock, kayak publisher, dies (KansasCity.com)

1 Colm Tóibín named Griffin Poetry Prize judge (Globe and Mail)

1 Fighting public sector cuts with poetry (Guardian)

August news

31 Jackie Kay for Scotland's National Poet! (Guardian)

31 Berlin 'bombed' with poetry in anti-war protest (Guardian)

30 We May Have Found the Beat, but We Haven’t Found the Groove (Spectator)

27 Katherine Towers on Guardian First Book Award longlist. Read extracts (Guardian)

27 Dylan Thomas Centre puts poetry at the heart of its live offerings (BBC)

27 Frank Kermode's love for poets and poetry (Telegraph)

24 Ghazi al-Gosaibi obituary (Guardian)

23 Poetry Society member Gill McEvoy wins Cinnamon Press Birthday Competition

21 English Elms by Carol Ann Duffy, commissioned for Newsnight (BBC)

21 Shortlist for Nation's Favourite countryside poem (Telegraph)

19 AB Jackson wins Edwin Morgan Poetry Comp. PS Member Marianne Burton 3rd. PS Member Fiona Benson one of runners-up

19 Scots Makar Edwin Morgan dies (BBC)

19 Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy pays tribute to Edwin Morgan: "He was poetry’s true son and blessed by her." (Scottish Poetry Library)

18 Jeanette Winterson hits out at Libraries threat (Guardian)

18 12% of boys write poems, 21% of girls (National Literacy Trust)

18 Frank Kermode obituary (Telegraph)

17 Poetry Society Member Carrie Etter wins £2500 London New Poetry Award (blog)

17 Narayan Surve, Marathi poet, dies (Times of India)

11 Commuters pay poetic tribute to Tube (Standard)

11 The public role of the private writer (Guardian)

10 Who are the most overrated contemporary writers in the world? (Guardian)

7 Carol Ann Duffy poem responds to Royal Mail deleting counties from database (Guardian)

2 Embarrassing poem for Chelsea Clinton's wedding (Telegraph)

2 Poem of the week: Schubertiad by Fiona Sampson (Guardian)

July news

31 The new wave of literary events (Guardian)

30 Ten years of Salt (Guardian)

27 Arts for everyone is cheap considering its rich returns (Polly Toynbee, The Guardian)

27 Arts cuts reveal the government's poor business sense (Guardian)

26 Tuli Kupferberg obituary (Guardian)

26 Simon Armitage's progress on the Pennine Way (BBC News)

25 Let's cut the Arts budget - Mark Ravenhill (Guardian)

24 Jo Shapcott: "I'm not someone chasing her own ambulance" (Guardian)

21 School libraries failling to meet standards (Bookseller)

21 Dylan Thomas Prize longlist inc PS member Caroline Bird (Bookseller)

21 Siegfried Sassoon archive in Cambridge (Guardian)

20 GF Dutton obituary by Anne Stevenson (Guardian)

20 Forward shortlist includes Poetry Review Editor Fiona Sampson and NPC runner-up Ian Pindar (Guardian)

20 Seamus Heaney Award shortlist inc PS Members Lorraine Mariner and Anne Berkeley

19 Brit Writers' Awards (Bookseller)

19 Latitude review (Independent)

16 Benjamin Zephaniah helps promote Welsh-Jamaica link (BBC)

15 Poetry International Web UK launch

15 £6,000 Auden bargain

15 Pete Morgan obituary (Guardian)

15 The rise of the literary night out (Independent)

14 Why the arts matter (Arts Council)

13 Salt relaunch 'Just One Book' campaign (Bookseller)

10 Carol Ann Duffy commissions sport poems (Guardian)

9 The arts need a really big give that never stops giving - Peter Bazalgette, ENO (Guardian)

7 PS members Nina Boyd and Suzanna Fitzpatrick shortlisted for Buxton Poetry Competition

7 PS member and poet Adam Horovitz voted onto the annual Hospital Club 100 list for rising stars of the British creative industries. (Independent)

7 Sponsor a Larkin toad!

7 Todd Swift's top 5 poets 2005-2010 (Eyewear blog)

7 Poetry Society members Hilary Menos and Ian McEwen win 2010 Templar Poetry Pamphlet and Collection Prize

5 Help translate a poem into the many languages of London

5 Ledbury asks: which words disturb you? (Guardian)

3 HMV 'may sell Waterstones' (Daily Mail)

1 WS Merwin is 17th US Poet Laureate (Washington Post)