THE WORK
Northern Light
By Alex Mepham
—after Celia Paul describing the paintings of Gwen John
It’s woven through every seam:
that enkelt light, the weft, that blends
a Jylland sea and sky in March,
a hand spun hank of Gotland wool
dyed with a lone indigo leaf
and knit on gauge in stockinette,
worn humbly over cotton twill
for walks along the stoneless shore
to sight that morning northern light.
Gwen John, A Corner of the Artist’s Room in Paris, 1907-1909. Oil on canvas, 31.2 x 24.8 cm. National Museum Wales.
Alex Mepham (they/them) is a PhD student investigating how background noise impacts speech understanding. Alex is the current Poetry Editor at Queerlings, and has work appearing in Magma, Dreich, Berlin Lit, Visual Verse, Ink Sweat and Tears, Rat World Magazine, and Modern Poetry in Translation, among others. Alex currently lives in York, UK, and can be found at amepham.carrd.co.