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  • The Picnic
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The Picnic

Edwin Morgan

Painting of people sat on grass beneath trees

In a little rainy mist of white and grey
we sat under an old tree,
drank tea toasts to the powdery mountain,
undrunk got merry, played catch
with the empty flask, on the pine needles
came down to where it rolled stealthily away –
you lay
with one arm in the rain, laughing
shaking only your wet hair
loose against the grass, in that enchanted place
of tea, with curtains of a summer rain
dropped round us, for a rainy day.


Edwin Morgan

from Collected Poems (Carcanet, 1990)

 

 

Reproduced by permission of the publisher.

Tags:

alcohol food happiness National Poetry Day 2004 poems on postcards rain

About this poem

The Picnic National Poetry Day postcard 2004

This poem was reproduced on a postcard for National Poetry Day 2004. 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 2004 was food. 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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