Faber New Poets: Toby Martinez De Las Rivas
Showcasing the work of the Faber New Poets with a poem from the second volume.
Funded by Arts Council England, Faber New Poets aims to identify and support emerging talents at an early stage in their careers. Through a programme of mentorship, bursary and pamphlet publication, the scheme offers four poets a year the time, guidance and encouragement they require to help in the development of their work in the longer term.
Toby Martinez de las Rivas was born in 1978. He grew up in Somerset, then moved to the north-east of England after studying history and archaeology at Durham where he began writing. He won an Eric Gregory award in 2005 and the Andrew Waterhouse award from New Writing North in 2008. His poems have appeared in a number of magazines. He currently lives in Gateshead where he teaches English to asylum seekers and refugees.
Song
An ‘arrogant little tool,’ that was Migdale.
All five foot four of him.
Always scratching his head and looking pained and adjusting himself.
The last time I saw him, it was his well-fed silhouette
straddling the gate in half-light,
‘too busy’ to come in good time for the birth, and ‘too poor’ for the vet,
instead he came like a thief in the night,
shooing the crows and draping an inverse, eyeless thing
over his shoulder with disdain like a soiled boa.
As he sloped away, his back grew dark with burst caul, the slipped halo
of that ‘poor fellow.’
Goodbye, little song.
Goodbye, Migdale.
They said in the village you were an absentee landlord, a shirker, a fool.
But nightfall and sun-up wait at your beck and call.
