Andrea Holland has two collections of poetry in the UK, Broadcasting (Gatehouse Press) and a chapbook, Borrowed (Smith/Doorstop Press) as well as individual poems in both UK and US journals and anthologies, including ‘Nasty Women Poets: An Unapologetic Anthology’ (Long Horse Press) and Roger: Art & Literary magazine in the U.S and The World Speaking Back: Poems for Denise Riley, The Rialto, The North and www.inksweatandtears.co.uk amongst other UK publications. She lived in the USA for 15 years, but resides in Norwich, UK and teaches part time at the University of East Anglia. She sits on the Board of the European Association of Creative Writing Programs and has both practiced and published on collaboration and cross-arts practice.
Serendipity
There may be a river in South Carolina with this name.
There may be a deer stopping to drink at this river,
at dusk, as other creatures bed down for the night.
The Serendipity River begins in the East and flows
West. The tawny doe lifts her head slow as prayer,
a few beads of water, clear as glass, drip from her
downy lip. An expanse of forest to one side hides
a hunter, the shadow of the hunter, his gun
trembling in his hand not unlike the feathers
on a quill that a man might use to write to his beloved,
telling of his good fortune, and how serene the river
looked this evening, as he walked to the edge
and gazed in, thinking of her, dear girl. Even the sound
of a gun, startling a few jays in the pines, had not broken
the moment: the river still eased past, clear about
its purposeful route, animate and available to all.