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Foundation

Edwin Morgan

‘What would you put in the foundation stone
for future generations?’ ‘A horseshoe,
a ballet shoe, a horseshoe crab, a sea-horse,
a sheriff’s star, a pacemaker, a tit’s egg, a tomato,
a ladybird, a love-letter, a laugh-track, a yo-yo,
a microtektite, a silicon chip, a chip pan,
a Rembrandt, a Reinhardt, a Reinhardt jigsaw –’
‘That’s some foundation stone –’ ‘ – a hovercraft,
a manta ray, a bulldozer, a windjammer,
a planetarium, an oilrig, a Concorde, a cornfield,
a gannetry, a hypermarket, a continental shelf,
a brace of asteroids, a spiral nebula –’
‘Why don’t you take my question seriously – ?’
‘ – a black hole, a dream, a conceptual universe,
no, make it a dozen conceptual universes
laid tail to head like sardines in a tin
and poured all over with lovely oil
of poetry: seal it; solder the key.’


Edwin Morgan

from Edwin Morgan: Collected Poems 1949-1987 (Carcanet, 1996)

Reproduced by permission of the publisher.

Tags:

architecture list poems sonnets the future wordplay

About this poem

Foundation National Poetry Day postcard 2005

This poem was reproduced on a postcard for National Poetry Day 2005. Eight poetry postcards are published each year by the Scottish Poetry Library to celebrate National Poetry Day and are distributed throughout Scotland to schools, libraries and other venues. The theme for 2005 was the future. You can find out more about National Poetry Day in our National Poetry Day pages, where you’ll also find resources to go with the poems.

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Edwin Morgan1920 - 2010

Morgan was Glasgow's first Poet Laureate 1999-2002, and the first to hold the post of Scots Makar, created by the Scottish Executive in 2004 to recognise the achievement of Scottish poets throughout the centuries.
More about Edwin Morgan

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