Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

What have I been doing today?
I can tell you this, since you ask –
When I woke because the cat
touched my face at 4.23
(to test if I were awake or not –
I wasn’t, as it happened)
I have been trying not only to remember
but to observe the importance of things –
How the purr in my ear had three
contented notes (not two) – one high, two low
– a falling phrase repeated
almost a monotony, but never so,
and when it cut out –
it startled me to wakefulness again
and a car at whatever unearthly hour it was
swished down the street as its light
(I remember it now) travelled
backwards across the ceiling.
Daylight came slowly
not that I could have stopped it
– or hastened it – but all the same
one is not always pleased that a certain day
has arrived. I was content to let it come
as if a gift had been delivered,
one that I half expected, but not knowing
quite when. So I was pleased
that it had arrived unspoilt –
looking out on the street thickly splattered –
pavements, verges, highway, hedges and the cars –
with a multitude of beech leaves, each one a unique colour
from yellows through to russets and browns
unique as every dawn, each moment in it.
I was content to observe and remember
and not mutter inwardly at our car
being littered also with leaves to be cleared before work
(time wasted) because today is Sunday
the first day of the week.
And it is Autumn (or rather, Fall)
and the car is different, customised by chance.
Let it stand there all day untouched
to be admired. I thought.
And the rest of the day I have done nothing....