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  • Particle Poems: 3
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Particle Poems: 3

Edwin Morgan

Three particles lived in mystical union.
They made knife, fork, and spoon,
and earth, sea, and sky.
They made animal, vegetable, and mineral,
and faith, hope, and charity.
They made stop, caution, go,
and hickory, dickory, dock.
They made yolk, white, and shell,
and hook, line, and sinker.
They made pounds, shillings, and pence,
and Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia.
They made Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
and game, set, and match.

A wandering particle captured one of them,
and the two that were left made day and night,
and left and right, and right and wrong,
and black and white, and off and on,
but things were never quite the same,
and two will always yearn for three.
They’re after you, or me.


Edwin Morgan

Part 3 from ‘Particle Poems’ from Star Gate: Science Fiction Poems (Third Eye Centre, 1979)
also published in Collected Poems (Carcanet, 1990)

Reprinted by permission of Carcanet Press.

Tags:

creation myths humour physics Surrealism threes
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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.
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