This month's poem is taken from Ruth Padel's new collection, THE SOHO LEOPARD (published by Chatto and Windus UK)

I love her work, and always find new things in it. If you don't know her, she is worth the time and trouble. If you do, this new collection will please you. She writes wide and brave but always from the same centre. She writes as a woman, but she speaks to Everyman.

Check out the website at www.ruthpadel.co.uk

TIGER DRINKING AT FOREST POOL

Water, moonlight, danger, dream.
Bronze urn, angled on a tree root: one
Slash of light, then gone. A red moon
Seen through clouds, or almost seen.

Treasure found but lost, flirting between
The worlds of lost and found. An unjust law
Repealed, a wish come true, a lifelong
Sadness healed. Haven, in the mind,

To anyone hurt by littleness. A prayer
For the moment, saved; treachery forgiven.
Flame of the crackle-glaze tangle, amber
Reflected in grey milk-jade. An old song
Remembered, long debt paid.
A painting on silk, which may fade.