like a ship the shape of flight
or like the weight that keeps it upright
or like a skyline crossed by breath
or like the planking bent beneath
or like a glint or like a gust
or like the lofting of a mast
such am I who flits and flows
and seeks and swerves and swiftly goes -
the ship sets sail, the weight is thrown,
the skyline shifts, the planks groan,
the glint glides, the gust shivers
the mast sways and so does water
then like a wave the flesh of wind
or like the flow-veins on the sand
or like the inkling of a fish
or like the phases of a splash
or like an eye or like a bone
or like a sandflea on a stone
such am I who flits and flows
and seeks and swerves and swiftly goes -
the wave slides in, the sand lifts,
the fish fades, the splash drifts,
the eye blinks, the bone shatters,
the sandflea jumps and so does water
(to Contents)
.
A Fraud by Don Paterson
I was twenty, and crossing
a field near Bridgefoot
when I saw something glossing
the toe of my boot
and bent down to spread
the bracken and dock
where a tiny wellhead
had broken the rock
It strained through the gap
as a little clear tongue
that replenished its shape
by the shape of its song
Then it spoke. It said Son
I've no business with you.
whatever I own
is the next fellow's due.
But if I'm his doom
or Castalian spring -
your directive's the same:
keep walking.
But before it could soak
back into the stone
I dropped like a hawk
and I made it my own
and I bit its slim root
until it confessed
then swallowed its shout
in the cave of my breast
Now two strangers shiver
under one roof
the one who delivers
the promise and proof
and the one I deploy
for the poem or the kiss.
It gives me no joy
to tell you this.
(to Contents)
.
a field near Bridgefoot
when I saw something glossing
the toe of my boot
and bent down to spread
the bracken and dock
where a tiny wellhead
had broken the rock
It strained through the gap
as a little clear tongue
that replenished its shape
by the shape of its song
Then it spoke. It said Son
I've no business with you.
whatever I own
is the next fellow's due.
But if I'm his doom
or Castalian spring -
your directive's the same:
keep walking.
But before it could soak
back into the stone
I dropped like a hawk
and I made it my own
and I bit its slim root
until it confessed
then swallowed its shout
in the cave of my breast
Now two strangers shiver
under one roof
the one who delivers
the promise and proof
and the one I deploy
for the poem or the kiss.
It gives me no joy
to tell you this.
(to Contents)
.
Going Through the Villages by Matthew Francis
Midnight Faring
Slow-under-Wool
Settle Down
Wallow
Lullaby Lea
Lullaby Lea
Long reckoning
Tremble Noctis
Market Looming
Venge
Lullaby Lea
Lullaby Lea
Sheep's Quorum
Inward Haven
Gossip-sub-Breathing
Glimmerfields
Wanders End
Wanders End
(to Contents)
.
Slow-under-Wool
Settle Down
Wallow
Lullaby Lea
Lullaby Lea
Long reckoning
Tremble Noctis
Market Looming
Venge
Lullaby Lea
Lullaby Lea
Sheep's Quorum
Inward Haven
Gossip-sub-Breathing
Glimmerfields
Wanders End
Wanders End
(to Contents)
.
First Song by Thom Gunn
David
Legend, a drop of dew
cupped in the morning leaf
not true and not untrue
legend before belief
shepherd and youngest son
giantkiller and skald
- am I then anyone -
the roles join, interfold
and firm up as a gist
that moving out of mist
slips with an only tread
into the self ahead
I step with light precision
still ruddy like dawn cloud
the shepherd with the sling
to face a crazy king
joined in the palimpsest
of crisscross gratitude,
and God, and circumcision
Tough with the innocence
you call luck, I the Lord
And though the king has hurled
his javelin at me
I have his son's love, whence
I learn the mixed demand
I hardly can afford
of jostling with the world
David, and who will he
Incarnate no, and fickle
as the specific tickle
of frenum, fleshy fence
within Bathsehba's hand.
(to Contents)
.
Clowns by Miroslav Holub
Where do clowns go?
Where do clowns sleep?
Where do clowns eat?
What do clowns do
when no one
but no one at all
laughs any more
Mummy?
trans. by Ewald Osers
(to Contents)
.
Where do clowns sleep?
Where do clowns eat?
What do clowns do
when no one
but no one at all
laughs any more
Mummy?
trans. by Ewald Osers
(to Contents)
.
When the bees fell silent by Miroslav Holub
An old man
suddenly died
alone in his garden under an elderberry bush.
He lay there til dark,
when the bees
fell silent.
A lovely way to die, wasn't it,
doctor, says
the woman in black
who comes to the garden
as before,
every Saturday,
in her bag always
lunch for two.
trans. by Ewald Osers
(to Contents)
.
suddenly died
alone in his garden under an elderberry bush.
He lay there til dark,
when the bees
fell silent.
A lovely way to die, wasn't it,
doctor, says
the woman in black
who comes to the garden
as before,
every Saturday,
in her bag always
lunch for two.
trans. by Ewald Osers
(to Contents)
.
Guinea Corn (anon.)
Guinea Corn, I long to see you
Guinea Corn, I long to plant you
Guinea Corn, I long to mould you
Guinea Corn, I long to weed you
Guinea Corn, I long to hoe you
Guinea Corn, I long to top you
Guinea Corn, I long to cut you
Guinea Corn, I long to dry you
Guinea Corn, I long to beat you
Guinea Corn, I long to trash you
Guinea Corn, I long to parch you
Guinea Corn, I long to grind you
Guinea Corn, I long to turn you
Guinea Corn, I long to eat you.
Jamaican worksong, recorded 1797
(to Contents)
.
Guinea Corn, I long to plant you
Guinea Corn, I long to mould you
Guinea Corn, I long to weed you
Guinea Corn, I long to hoe you
Guinea Corn, I long to top you
Guinea Corn, I long to cut you
Guinea Corn, I long to dry you
Guinea Corn, I long to beat you
Guinea Corn, I long to trash you
Guinea Corn, I long to parch you
Guinea Corn, I long to grind you
Guinea Corn, I long to turn you
Guinea Corn, I long to eat you.
Jamaican worksong, recorded 1797
(to Contents)
.
Dream Dust by Langston Hughes
Gather out of star-dust
Earth-dust,
Cloud-dust,
Storm-dust,
And splinters of hail,
One handful of dream-dust
Not for sale.
(to Contents)
.
Earth-dust,
Cloud-dust,
Storm-dust,
And splinters of hail,
One handful of dream-dust
Not for sale.
(to Contents)
.
The Triple Fool by John Donne
I am two fools, I know,
For loving, and for saying so
In whining poetry ;
But where's that wise man, that would not be I,
If she would not deny?
Then as th' earth's inward narrow crooked lanes
Do purge sea water's fretful salt away,
I thought, if I could draw my pains
Through rhyme's vexation, I should them allay.
Grief brought to numbers cannot be so fierce,
For he tames it, that fetters it in verse.
But when I have done so,
Some man, his art and voice to show,
Doth set and sing my pain ;
And, by delighting many, frees again
Grief, which verse did restrain.
To love and grief tribute of verse belongs,
But not of such as pleases when 'tis read.
Both are increasèd by such songs,
For both their triumphs so are published,
And I, which was two fools, do so grow three.
Who are a little wise, the best fools be.
(to Contents)
.
For loving, and for saying so
In whining poetry ;
But where's that wise man, that would not be I,
If she would not deny?
Then as th' earth's inward narrow crooked lanes
Do purge sea water's fretful salt away,
I thought, if I could draw my pains
Through rhyme's vexation, I should them allay.
Grief brought to numbers cannot be so fierce,
For he tames it, that fetters it in verse.
But when I have done so,
Some man, his art and voice to show,
Doth set and sing my pain ;
And, by delighting many, frees again
Grief, which verse did restrain.
To love and grief tribute of verse belongs,
But not of such as pleases when 'tis read.
Both are increasèd by such songs,
For both their triumphs so are published,
And I, which was two fools, do so grow three.
Who are a little wise, the best fools be.
(to Contents)
.
The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile by Alice Oswald
I took the giant's walk on top of the world,
peak-striding, each step a viaduct.
I dropped hankies, cut from a cloth of hills,
and beat gold under fields
for the sun to pick out a patch.
I never absolutely told
the curl-horned cows to line up their gaze.
But it happened, so I let it be.
And Annual Meadow Grass, quite of her own accord,
between the dry-stone spread out emerald.
(I was delighted by her initiative
and praised the dry-stone for being contrary.)
What I did do (I am a gap)
was lean these elbows on a wall
and sat on my hunkers pervading the boulders.
My pose became the pass across two kingdoms,
before behind antiphonal, my cavity the chord.
And I certainly intended
anyone to be almost
abstracted on a gap-stone between fields.
(to Contents)
.
peak-striding, each step a viaduct.
I dropped hankies, cut from a cloth of hills,
and beat gold under fields
for the sun to pick out a patch.
I never absolutely told
the curl-horned cows to line up their gaze.
But it happened, so I let it be.
And Annual Meadow Grass, quite of her own accord,
between the dry-stone spread out emerald.
(I was delighted by her initiative
and praised the dry-stone for being contrary.)
What I did do (I am a gap)
was lean these elbows on a wall
and sat on my hunkers pervading the boulders.
My pose became the pass across two kingdoms,
before behind antiphonal, my cavity the chord.
And I certainly intended
anyone to be almost
abstracted on a gap-stone between fields.
(to Contents)
.
Mathematical Problem by Bhaskaracharya
Whilst making love a necklace broke.
A row of pearls mislaid.
One sixth fell to the floor.
One fifth upon the bed.
The young woman saved one third of them.
One tenth were caught by her lover.
If six pearls remained upon the string
How many pearls were there altogether?
(to Contents)
.
A row of pearls mislaid.
One sixth fell to the floor.
One fifth upon the bed.
The young woman saved one third of them.
One tenth were caught by her lover.
If six pearls remained upon the string
How many pearls were there altogether?
(to Contents)
.
Fireweed by Sean O'Brien
Look away just for a moment.
Then look back and see
How the fireweed's taking the strain.
This song's in praise of strong neglect
In the railway towns, in the silence
After the age of the train.
(to Contents)
.
Then look back and see
How the fireweed's taking the strain.
This song's in praise of strong neglect
In the railway towns, in the silence
After the age of the train.
(to Contents)
.
War Song of the Embattled Finns (1939) by Jon Stallworthy
Snow inexhaustibly
falling on snow! Those whom
we fight are so many,
Finland so small,
where shall we ever find room
to bury them all?
(to Contents)
.
falling on snow! Those whom
we fight are so many,
Finland so small,
where shall we ever find room
to bury them all?
(to Contents)
.
from Letter to Lord Byron by W.H. Auden
I shall recall a single incident
No more. I spoke of mining engineering
As the career on which my mind was bent,
But for some time my fancies had been veering;
Mirages of the future kept appearing;
Crazes had come and gone in short, sharp gales,
For motor-bikes, photography, and whales.
But indecision broke off with a clean-cut end
One afternoon in March at half-past three
When walking in a ploughed field with a friend
Kicking a little stone, he turned to me
And said, "Tell me, do you write poetry?"
I never had, and said so, but I knew
That very moment what I wished to do.
(to Contents)
.
No more. I spoke of mining engineering
As the career on which my mind was bent,
But for some time my fancies had been veering;
Mirages of the future kept appearing;
Crazes had come and gone in short, sharp gales,
For motor-bikes, photography, and whales.
But indecision broke off with a clean-cut end
One afternoon in March at half-past three
When walking in a ploughed field with a friend
Kicking a little stone, he turned to me
And said, "Tell me, do you write poetry?"
I never had, and said so, but I knew
That very moment what I wished to do.
(to Contents)
.
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