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Sonnet

Veronica Forrest-Thomson

My love, if I write a song for you
To that extent you are gone
For, as everyone says, and I know it’s true:
We are all always alone.

Never so separate trying to be two
And the busy old fool is right.
To try and finger myself from you
Distinguishes day from night.

If I say “I love you” we can’t but laugh
Since irony knows what we’ll say.
If I try to free myself by my craft
You vary as night from day.

So, accept the wish for the deed my dear.
Words were made to prevent us near.


Veronica Forrest-Thomson

‘Sonnet’ from On the Periphery (1976), in Veronica Forrest-Thomson, Collected Poems (Shearsman Books, 2008) Copyright © The Estate of Veronica Forrest-Thomson, 1990, 2008. By permission of Allardyce, Barnett, Publishers.

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former loves irony loneliness Love & Romance sonnets unrequited love
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Veronica Forrest-Thomson1947 - 1975

A thoughtful and lyrical contrarian, VFT became a Joan of Arc figure for British and American Postmodern Poetry.
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