Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Oh, Here it Is!

My manifesto.

An Old Man's Reading

If I am spared I shall read Earthly Powers
and Barchester Towers
(for the second time) --
I can't spare a dime of time
while I'm on earth I must pluck and fuck these flowers

with my probing beelike mental proboscis
and avoid night losses,
I must concentrate
on both the first and second rate
much as a botanist collects the rare and common mosses.

I've dealt with the Homers, Virgils, Dantes --
but not Cervantes,
there's some good stuff
(you can't get enough of Clough)
still to be revealed, like a pretty girl out of her panties.

There are hundreds of poets, mostly European,
you could take a lien
on famous names
or go on and finish Henry James
who of course in his time inspired many a critical paean --

but it's all got to be done fast, a knees-up
before my eyes seize up
and blur the print
as a harbinger and a sizeable hint
that winter is coming when all our warm welfare will freeze up.

-- Gavin Ewart

No comments: