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Today, on November 23rd, 2008, the site contains 196 poets, 8,693 poems and 4,840 comments.
Craig Raine - City Gent

On my desk, a set of labels
or a synopsis of leeks,
blanched by the sun
and trailing their roots

like a watering can.
Beyond and below,
diminished by distance,
a taxi shivers at the lights:

a shining moorhen
with an orange nodule
set over the beak,
taking a passenger

under its wing.
I turn away, confront
the cuckold hatstand
at bay in the corner,

and eavesdrop (bless you!)
on a hay-fever of brakes.
My Caran d'Ache are sharp
as the tips of an iris

and the four-tier file
is spotted with rust:
a study of plaice
by a Japanese master,

ochres exquisitely bled.
Instead of office work,
I fish for complements
and sport a pencil

behind each ear,
a bit of a devil,
or trap the telephone
awkwardly under my chin

like Richard Crookback,
crying, A horse! A horse!
My kingdom for a horse!
but only to myself,

ironically: the tube
is semi-stiff with stallion whangs,
the chairman's Mercedes
has windscreen wipers

like a bird's broken tongue,
and I am perfectly happy
to see your head, quick
round the door like a dryad,

as I pretend to be Ovid
in exile, composing Tristia
and sad for the shining,
the missed, the muscular beach.

Added: on November 13th, 2006 at 4:56 AM | Viewed: 413 times | Comments (1)


City Gent - Comments and Information

Poet: Craig Raine
Poem: City Gent

Year: Published/Written in 1984

Comment 1 of 1, added on November 13th, 2006 at 4:56 AM.

The third one now on the list. I'm starting to see his style. It's ok, I guess. Seems good, I wonder though what might make it great. The techniquie is good but themes seem too trivial. I'd like to read what he's written about something deep.

shelley fruiterer from United States

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