Larkin's 'Aubade' is Stalking Me
(For Jen)
Anne Brechin reading Larkin's 'Aubade' is Stalking Me 2001.4 KB
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I – Dawn-song
Larkin’s ‘Aubade’ is stalking me. And
I can’t find George’s poetry. Suddenly,
Someone tells me Rosencranz and Guildenstern
Are dead. I’m too hot, I leave the shop.
It’s been a while since I’ve been sick
In the street. Strange how easily it comes back
To me, like riding a bike, or the lines of that
Damn poem – though I’m never only half-drunk.
II – Worsening
Is it vanity to wear your perfume
On broken wrists? I’ve taken up
Smoking, you know, the soft plumes
From cigarettes haunt me everywhere,
Fire and air, fire and air.
There’s a facile explanation, it’s simply
A mimicry of my stolen breath. Yes,
I’m getting worse. Let’s not
Adorn it, this our language –
Waste land between our lips.
III – The Broken Doll
They are the lines on my palm,
Then they’re stray hairs crossing the pillow.
When my porcelain skin is warm, they glow
Like Orion, who waits on my left arm
To protect me as I walk home
Through the night sky. But then
Sometimes they are themselves, when
I look up and only see this thick glass dome.
Still, what are their selves?
Only my self, split at the seams.
Meeting you for coffee, I lean
Back in the chair, say I look
Like a broken doll. Who delves
Too deeply can find nothing, a page-less book.
poetrymagazines' note: recorded at Southbank Centre on 9th December 2006.
Page(s) 8-9
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The