Monday 17 March 2008

time was away and somewhere else

today my nineteen year old boy wandered in and by way of a conversation opener, asked me what my favourite poem was. so i told him, and here it is.

Meeting Point

Time was away and somewhere else,
There were two glasses and two chairs
And two people with the one pulse
(Somebody stopped the moving stairs)
Time was away and somewhere else.

And they were neither up nor down;
The stream's music did not stop
Flowing through heather, limpid brown,
Although they sat in a coffee shop
And they were neither up nor down.

The bell was silent in the air
Holding its inverted poise -
Between the clang and clang a flower,
A brazen calyx of no noise:
The bell was silent in the air.

The camels crossed the miles of sand
That stretched around the cups and plates;
The desert was their own, they planned
To portion out the stars and dates:
The camels crossed the miles of sand.

Time was away and somewhere else.
The waiter did not come, the clock
Forgot them and the radio waltz
Came out like water from a rock:
Time was away and somewhere else.

Her fingers flicked away the ash
That bloomed again in tropic trees:
Not caring if the markets crash
When they had forests such as these,
Her fingers flicked away the ash.

God or whatever means the Good
Be praised that time can stop like this,
That what the heart has understood
Can verify in the body's peace
God or whatever means the Good.

Time was away and she was here
And life no longer what it was,
The bell was silent in the air
And all the room one glow because
Time was away and she was here.

-- Louis MacNeice

5 comments:

  1. What a wonderful wonderful poem, India...the frozen moment when one can feel the breath of whatever force guides us...and we let go and ARE.

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  2. Louis MacNeice (and WH Auden) are among my favourite poets...if you can get your hands on their frequently irreverent collaborative travel tome 'Letters from Iceland' it's well worth a read...

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  3. Hello India, thanks for visiting my strange little world, very glad to stumble across yours :) I'll be adding you to my links...
    This is a very wonderful poem.
    I like that inbetween-place :)
    All the bet to you from the Scottish hills
    Rima

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  4. poetry can lend credibility to the impossible. can make us feel what we cannot believe. beautiful poem.

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  5. Oh, nice one. I enjoyed - thanks for sharing.

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