‘We used to think the universe was made…’ - by
We used to think the universe was made
/ of tiny invisible pin-points of energy, jostling
/ and tumbling and buzzing together, and so,
/ by…
We used to think the universe was made
/ of tiny invisible pin-points of energy, jostling
/ and tumbling and buzzing together, and so,
/ by…
On the earth a stretched second
/ you stood, balanced. Gravity
/
/ glued dolly shoes. You wore
/ the sky on your head, jauntily,
/
/ light blue paper…
Never written a poem for yourself
/ have you, you daft old bugger? Well
/ here goes.
/
/ …
‘Say efter me,’ said Rab, as he gied the waen
/ a hauf-croun muckle ‘s the muin i the middle air,
/ the siller…
I have, I think, most organs that
/ I started with. Some shaped by time
/ foreshortened, elongated, dulled.
/ I keep at bay…
I am old enough now for a tree
/ once planted, knee high, to have grown to be
/ twenty times me,
/
/ and to…
fallen in a heap
/ again
/ why do i keep
/ falling in a heap?
/
/ i got plaster
/ i got bricks
/ i got a…
Some prowl sea-beds, some hurtle to a star
/ and, mother, some obsessed turn over every stone
/ or open graves…
What a disappointment. Nothing like the movies,
/ nothing like the mind. A mass of muscles writhing,
/ an awkward hand on a tightened…
The blood / of the fish / becoming / the blood / of the bear.
The fascination of what’s difficult
/ Has dried the sap out of my veins, and rent
/ Spontaneous joy and natural…
Although we favoured football as a rule,
/ PE was comprehensive at our school.
/ Coached in a bit of this, a bit of…
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