AFTERNOON snoozers may recognise the phenomenon Ruth Fainlight describes so graphically in this sample from her New and Collected Poems (Bloodaxe, £20).
The New-York-born poet lives in London. This substantial volume covers 50 years' work, drawing from more than a dozen volumes, including a new collection.
THE LIMITATIONS OF TIREDNESS
The fierce hiss of sap in a burning log
is the same sound sleep makes as it withdraws
from me when I lie down these winter afternoons.
At first my hands relax and warmth spreads
through limbs which suddenly seem larger.
The blue and brown of moving skies and
surging water as the tide pulls out
across the sandflats concentrate between
my brows into a point of light I stare at
while the noise gets louder. I never know
why it stops, why, with a heart-lurch and a deep-drawn breath of alarm I turn back to the room
and fire and desk and wake to a stormy dusk:
the limitations of tiredness.
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