George A. Moore
The Apprentice
I knew him,
the almost-a-boy on
the Oxford express - a
weekly journey, a copy
of Mad Magazine
tucked in a capacious
pocket
and a novel - Dr No or
Diamonds Are Forever.
The journey undertaken
in pursuit of knowledge,
released for a day to
learn
the chemical composition
of printing inks,
the square pica method
of calculation,
to listen to Schoenberg
in the lecture hall,
discuss
Apartheid with Africans
in small rooms, to be
within the sanctuary
of knowledge yet
not of it.
in pursuit of knowledge,
released for a day to
learn
the chemical composition
of printing inks,
the square pica method
of calculation,
to listen to Schoenberg
in the lecture hall,
discuss
Apartheid with Africans
in small rooms, to be
within the sanctuary
of knowledge yet
not of it.
The setting up
of small soldiers in
the afternoon,
neat rows, their spaces
irregular, speaking
in mirror-words.
Reproducing poets'
voices.
Hush in the long room,
saving the click of selected lead.
In embryo, poems
half imagined found
no way, words locked
securely in his mind
unrecognised.
I knew him,
the almost-a-boy, barely
an artisan, trained
to set the poets' words
in type;
no more than that.
I saw him on the train,
going home, another
magazine, the same
book; no poetry.
Page(s) 7
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