Sarah Mnatzaganian
Biography
Anglo-Armenian poet Sarah Mnatzaganian lives in Ely. Highly-commended in the 2019 Mslexia/PBS pamphlet competition and shortlisted for the Poetry Business pamphlet competition 2016/17, her poems have appeared in Magma, The North, London Grip, Atrium, Fenland Reed, PITW and various anthologies. She studies with Peter and Ann Sansom and Heidi Williamson. She is particularly inspired by the work of 20th century women poets including Eavan Boland and Fleur Adcock.
The Poem
Slow movement
i.m Jamie Gardiner 1994 - 2017
If you loved me,
paint the air
with music.
Let the notes
fall on your face
like winter sun.
Allow your body to be plucked,
fingered,
bowed
and your heart
to be kneaded
and stretched
by warm hands.
Open your throat
as if to sing
but put words
away.
Listen with me
to what I loved
and then,
when the colours
fall like petals into
silence,
hold the peace
as if it were
my hand.