Peter Abbs
Philip Larkin without love
I live at the end of a long line into loneliness -
Distrusting high phrases, the cliches of redress.
I inspect flat land, allotments, survey the dead.
I envy everybody everything. If I cast my bread
On the waters it would sink as heavily as stone.
How the grave hurtles towards us. I exist alone.
How far back do we have to go? How many stations
Of denial? How many fathers, mothers, relations
Blowing ash into our stuttering mouth - ash on
Our tongue - ash on the water - ash on the sun.
And where do our private holocausts begin -
In the privations of love or the aimless gene?
And, once broken, what can make us whole?
Oh, terra incognita! Oh, dark night of the soul!
Distrusting high phrases, the cliches of redress.
I inspect flat land, allotments, survey the dead.
I envy everybody everything. If I cast my bread
On the waters it would sink as heavily as stone.
How the grave hurtles towards us. I exist alone.
How far back do we have to go? How many stations
Of denial? How many fathers, mothers, relations
Blowing ash into our stuttering mouth - ash on
Our tongue - ash on the water - ash on the sun.
And where do our private holocausts begin -
In the privations of love or the aimless gene?
And, once broken, what can make us whole?
Oh, terra incognita! Oh, dark night of the soul!
Page(s) 2
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