Anne Shenfield

Anne Shenfield works across a range of media, children’s picture books, animated films and poetry, having received awards in many areas.

Magnifications

Before she connected the headphones 

to the tree she said

I’ve been told that ice cracking 

sounds like a child screaming

I knew she meant this literally 

and as I listened to the tree  

I heard a pulse, or that is

the sound of a heart beating in drips

In that moment, everything concertinaed 

although maybe what I mean is the opposite 

Besides somebody else was already 

slamming it all shut, saying

The only thing we humans ever hear

is the magnification of our own sound

— Anne Shenfield