Robert Conquest
Vision
One sight I never happen to have seen
Is a naked girl by the sea’s edge.
Photographs in a current magazine
Lead me to believe I’ve missed something.
In a field of corn, yes, and other places
— In the snow, half-naked on skis,
(Oh, very fine!); mostly with known faces,
And usually none the worse for that.
So if I do not mention Aphrodite
It is not for want of reverence.
Too formal, though. As one may find too flighty
All those cold-eyed nymphs of the sea.
Visual excitability, landscape, love,
Impose images: memory and myth
Will tend to coincide. Indulgence of
Mere whim? No, a pass at life.
A conscious pose would not be quite the thing
(In spite of those professional layouts).
Luck, spontaneity, must work to bring
The extreme result. This summer, I hope:
On a clear day, a blue but cloud-flecked sky,
Water sparkling; hair in a light wind;
Foam round her calves; eyes, limbs livelily
Scouring the sublime heights of the mind.
Page(s) 30
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