Poems 1960-2000 (31 page)
- ‘Oblivion, that’s all. I never dream,’ he said,
141
- Odd how the seemingly maddest of men,
131
- Offerings
,
263
- Off the Track
,
94
- On a Son Returned to New Zealand
,
44
- Only a slight fever,
72
- On the Border
,
136
- On the curved staircase he embraced me,
272
- On the Land
,
177
- On the School Bus
,
169
- On the wall above the bedside lamp,
204
- On the Way to the Castle
,
210
- Our busy springtime has corrupted,
94
- Our throats full of dust, teeth harsh with it,
108
- Our Trip to the Federation
,
85
- Outside the National Gallery,
105
- Outwood
,
168
- Over the Edge
,
76
- Paremata
,
259
- Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow
,
27
- Pastoral
,
182
- Paths
,
120
- Paua-Shell
,
110
- ‘Personal Poem’
,
175
- Peter Pan
,
276
- Peter Wentworth in Heaven
,
255
- Piano Concerto in E Flat Major
,
138
- Pink Lane, Strawberry Lane, Pudding Chare,
141
- Please Identify Yourself
,
61
- Poem Ended by a Death
,
97
- Poetry for the summer. It comes out blinking,
276
- Poetry Placement
,
276
- Polypectomy
,
278
- Post Office
,
187
- Prelude
,
88
- Proposal for a Survey
,
90
- Pupation
,
70
- Purple Shining Lilies
,
39
- Queen Caroline, I think, planted these chestnuts,
276
- Rats
,
261
- Red-tipped, explosive, self-complete,
163
- Regression
,
25
- Revision
,
133
- Richey
,
62
- Risks
,
265
- River
,
109
- Roles
,
203
- Romania
,
211
- St Gertrude’s, Sidcup,
166
- St John’s School
,
69
- Salfords, Surrey,
167
- Samuel Joynson
,
240
- Sandy
,
277
- Saturday
,
45
- Scalford Again
,
170
- Scalford School
,
166
- Scarcely two hours back in the country,
116
- Script
,
66
- Sea-Lives
,
110
- Send-off
,
95
- Settlers
,
112
- Shakespeare’s Hotspur
,
132
- She keeps the memory-game,
77
- She’ll never be able to play the piano,
222
- She writes to me from a stony island,
64
- Showcase
,
76
- Shrimping-Net
,
111
- Slightly frightened of the bullocks,
92
- Smokers for Celibacy
,
215
- Snow on the tops: half the day I’ve sat at the window,
123
- Somehow we manage it: to like our friends,
214
- Somehow you’ve driven fifty miles to stand,
247
- Some of us are a little tired of hearing that cigarettes kill,
215
- Someone has nailed a lucky horse-shoe,
137
- Somewhere in the bush, the last moa,
205
- Spilt petrol,
110
- Standing just under the boatshed,
111
- Stepping down from the blackberry bushes,
35
- Stewart Island
,
44
- Stockings
,
261
- Strange room, from this angle,
101
- Street Scene, London
N2,
185
- Street Song
,
142
- Sub Sepibus
,
245
- Suddenly it’s gone public; it rushed out,
211
- Summer in Bucharest
,
266
- Swings and Roundabouts
,
254
- Syringa
,
99
- Tadpoles
,
159
- Tarmac, take-off: metallic words conduct us,
15
- Tawny-white as a ripe hayfield,
129
- That can’t be it,
250
- That’s where they lived in the 1890s,
234
- That was the year the rats got in,
261
- That wet gravelly sound is rain,
70
- The accidents are never happening,
177
- The barber’s shop has gone anonymous,
186
- The Batterer
,
203
- The Bedroom Window
,
157
- The bee in the foxglove, the mouth on the nipple,
43
- The Breakfast Program
,
208
- The Bullaun
,
60
- The Chiffonier
,
158
- The concrete road from the palace to the cinema,
78
- The Drought Breaks
,
70
- The events of the
Aeneid
were not enacted,
39
- The Ex-Queen Among the Astronomers,
93
- The Fairies’ Winter Palace,
276
- The Famous Traitor,
65
- The Farm
,
212
- The first spring of the new century,
238
- The first transvestite I ever went to bed with,
261
- The four-year-old believes he likes,
22
- The French boy was sick on the floor at prayers,
166
- The Genius of Surrey
,
164
- The Greenhouse Effect
,
204
- The hailstorm was in my head,
82
- The High Tree
,
173
- The Hillside
,
129
- The hills, I told them; and water, and the clear air,
115
- The Inner Harbour
,
110
- Their little black thread legs, their threads of arms,
159
- The janitor came out of his eely cave,
268
- The Keepsake
,
162
- The landscape of my middle childhood,
164
- The Last Moa
,
205
- The little girls in the velvet collars,
169
- The Man Who X-Rayed an Orange
,
23
- The maths master was eight feet tall,
171
- The Monarch caterpillars were crawling away,
278
- The Net
,
77
- Then in the end she didn’t marry him,
130
- The ones not in the catalogue,
179
- The other option’s to become a bird,
87
- The Pangolin
,
32
- The Pilgrim Fathers
,
258
- The power speaks only out of sleep and blackness,
118
- The Prize-winning Poem
,
136
- The queue’s right out through the glass doors,
187
- There are worse things than having behaved foolishly in public,
87
- There have been all those tigers, of course,
32
- There is no safety,
148
- There they were around the wireless,
165
- There was a tree higher than clouds or lightning,
173
- There was never just one book for the desert island,
184
- There were always the places I couldn’t spell, or couldn’t find on maps,
113
- The Ring
,
130
- The room is full of clichés – ‘Throw me a crumb’,
27
- The Russian War
,
235
- These coloured slopes ought to inspire,
121
- These winds bully me,
107
- The sheets have been laundered clean,
77
- The Soho Hospital for Women
,
101
- The Spirit of the Place
,
121
- The strong image is always the river,
109
- The surface dreams are easily remembered,
50
- The syringa’s out. That’s nice for me,
99
- The tadpoles won’t keep still in the aquarium,
132
- The Telephone Call
,
179
- The Three-toed Sloth
,
49
- The three-toed sloth is the slowest creature we know,
49
- ‘The time is nearly one o’clock,
206
- The trees have all gone from the grounds of my manor,
255
- The underworld of children becomes the overworld,
143
- The Vale of Grasmere
,
121
- The Video
,
270
- The Voices
,
267
- The voices change on the
answering-machines
,
267
- The Voyage Out
,
62
- The Wars
,
244
- The Water Below
,
30
- The weekly dietary scale,
62
- The worst thing that can happen,
193
- They are throwing the ball,
34
- They asked me ‘Are you sitting down,
179
- They call it pica,
73
- They give us moistened BOAC towels,
80
- The young are walking on the riverbank,
182
- The young cordwainer (yes, that’s right),
240
- They set the boy to hairdressing,
242
- They serve revolving saucer eyes,
93
- They suggest I hold court in the Queen’s Temple,
276
- They thought he looked like Gregory Peck, of course,
260
- They will wash all my kisses and fingerprints off you,
97
- Things
,
87
- Think Before You Shoot
,
31
- Think, now: if you have found a dead bird,
29
- This darkness has a quality,
24
- This house is floored with water,
30
- This is a story. Dear Clive,
92
- This is the front door. You can just see,
185
- This is the time of year when people die,
200
- This tender ‘V’ of thighs below my window,
264
- This truth-telling is well enough,
100
- This Ungentle Music
,
129
- This Winifred Nicholson card for my mother’s birthday,
278
- Those thorn trees in your poems, Alistair,
122
- Three Rainbows in One Morning
,
119
- Three times I have slept in your house,
28
- Through my pillow, through mattress, carpet, floor and ceiling,
107
- Ting-ting!
‘What’s in your pocket, sir?’
213
- Toads
,
196
- Today the Dog of Heaven swallowed the sun,
135
- ‘To Fleur from Pete, on loan perpetual’,
162
- Tokens
,
77
- To Marilyn from London
,
116
- Tongue Sandwiches
,
257
- Tongue sandwiches on market-day,
257
- Too jellied, viscous, floating a condition,
204
- Train from the Hook of Holland
,
63
- Traitors
,
252
- Trees
,
47
- Tricks and tumbles are my trade; I’m,
145
- Trio
,
269
- Tunbridge Wells
,
172
- Turnip-heads
,
202
- 227 Peel Green Road
,
236
- Under a hedge was good enough for us,
245
- Under the Lawn
,
197
- Under the sand at low tide,
110
- Unexpected Visit
,
20
- Uniunea Scriitorilor
,
156
- Variations on a Theme of Horace
,
103
- Viewed from the top, he said, it was like a wheel,
23
- Villa Isola Bella
,
139
- Visited
,
100
- Water
,
243
- We are dried and brittle this morning,
71
- Weathering
,
124
- We awakened facing each other,
89
- We bought raspberries in the market,
266
- ‘We did sums at school, Mummy,
166
- We give ten pence to the old woman,
108
- We three in our dark decent clothes,
189
- ‘Wet the tea, Jinny, the men are back,
66
- We weave haunted circles about each other,
40
- We went to Malaya for an afternoon,
85
- ‘What are you looking at?’ ‘Looking’,
119
- What are you loving me with? I’m dead,
247
- What can I have done to earn,
203
- What is it, what is it? Quick: that whiff,
206
- What May Happen
,
193
- What shall we do with Granpa, in his silver,
234
- What was the creepiest thing about him,
276
- When I came in that night I found,
38
- When I got up that morning I had no father,
194
- When I went back the school was rather small,
69
- When Laura was born, Ceri watched,
270
- When the Americans were bombing Libya,
193
- When they were having the Gulf War,
244
- When we heard the results of our tests,
265
- When you dyed your hair blue,
161
- When you’re fifteen, no one understands you,
259
- When you were lying on the white sand,
19
- Where They Lived
,
234
- Which redhead did I get my temper from,
242
- Wildlife
,
201
- ‘Will I die?’ you ask. And so I enter on,
21
- Willow Creek
,
268
- Witnesses
,
189
- Wren Song
,
198