Anne Murray
Oedipus at Colonus
This is a quiet place. We’ll sit and rest. And think.
But thought is pain.
I am an old man, self-blinded, in an agony
Of guilt. Oh, mother, wife, beloved,
My heart shrivels in torment, even now,
Even after all these years, remembering
Our love, our sinful love.
How was I to know? –
I loved you past telling. And our children
Were sweet as robin’s eggs.
How could I know?
The Fates were malignant torturers to tear apart
Our innocence.
Now Antigone, our first, best child,
Is my staff and eyes,
Provider of food, rest, gentleness, for my weakness;
A mother bird guarding her ancient young.
We sit beneath these trees, wrapped in a peace
I have not known since –
Oh my beloved Jocasta,
I cannot say the words;
My throat aches, tears cannot come;
Nor can tears assuage.
It was not mine, the fault;
I should not feel
This guilt. Only remorse, only sorrow. A still, deep, sorrow,
Deep as the stillness of these trees.
I feel, I smell, their healing greenness.
The Fates have relented.
Page(s) 27-28
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