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Now

Margaret Tait

I used to lie in wait to see the clover open
Or close,
But never saw it.
I was too impatient,
Or the movement is too subtle,
Imperceptible
And more than momentary.
My five-year-old self would tire of waiting
And when I looked again
– All closed for the night!
I missed it
Once more.

Cinematographically
I have registered the opening of escholtzia
On an early summer morning.
It gave me a sharp awareness of time passing,
Of exact qualities and values in the light,
But I didn’t see the movement
As movement.
I didn’t with my own direct perception see the petals
moving.
Later, on the film, they seemed to open swiftly,
But, at the time,
Although I stared
And felt time not so much moving as being moved in
And felt
A unity of time and place with other times and places
Yet
I didn’t see the petals moving.
I didn’t see them opening.
They were closed,
And later they were open,
And in between I noted many phases,
But I didn’t see them moving open.
My timing and my rhythm could not observe the
rhythm of their opening.

The thing about poetry is you have to keep doing it.
People have to keep making it.
The old stuff is no use
Once it’s old.
It comes out of the instant
And lasts for an instant.
Take it now
Quickly
Without water.

There!

Tomorrow they’ll be something else.


Margaret Tait

from Margaret Tait: poems, stories and writings, edited with an introduction by Sarah Neely (Carcanet Press, 2012)

originally published in origins and elements (1959)

© Alex Pirie. Reproduced by permission of the Estate of Margaret Tait and the publisher.

Tags:

childhood film and cinema observation patience perception time passing writing poetry

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Margaret Tait1918 - 1999

Margaret Tait was one of Britain’s most unique and individual film makers, producing over 30 films, including a portrait of Hugh MacDiarmid. She also published three books of poetry.
More about Margaret Tait

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