Nothing to report
At forty I should be further than this,
But where to turn? The earth offers up no
Door and the airy light of the hills
No windows, though the sea is a glittering track
There at the limits of sight. Everywhere
The movement of living things, the struggle of nettles
Out of the smashed stone of the hillside
Farms; plants and animals obeying light
That rolls up over the earth's rim without majesty
Or praise, grey, as today, or strong enough to blind.
We can not prevail. 'Species, and groups of species'
Marching into the soil. There's no mockery in this.
A mollusc stays the same for a hundred million
Years, then dies out, shrivelling on the shores.
But where to turn? The earth offers up no
Door and the airy light of the hills
No windows, though the sea is a glittering track
There at the limits of sight. Everywhere
The movement of living things, the struggle of nettles
Out of the smashed stone of the hillside
Farms; plants and animals obeying light
That rolls up over the earth's rim without majesty
Or praise, grey, as today, or strong enough to blind.
We can not prevail. 'Species, and groups of species'
Marching into the soil. There's no mockery in this.
A mollusc stays the same for a hundred million
Years, then dies out, shrivelling on the shores.
Page(s) 12
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