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.

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July's Poetry News

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)

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)

June's Poetry News

30 Philip Gross wins Wales Book of the Year (BBC Wales)

30 BBC to dramatise Christopher Reid poem (Guardian)

30  £2500 London New Poetry Award. Congrats to all on  shortlist including PS members Carrie Etter, David Briggs, Hilary Menos & Katrina Naomi

More Poetry in the News