Andrew Young looks skywards for his inspiration in his main poem, rather than, as he so often does, to whimsical earth-bound observations. His Selected Poems are published by Carcanet at £9.95.
THE STARS
The stars rushed forth tonight
Fast on the faltering light;
So thick those stars did lie
No room was left for sky;
And to my upturned stare
A snow-storm filled the air.
Stars lay like yellow pollen
That from a flower has fallen;
And single stars I saw
Crossing themselves in awe;
Some stars in sudden fear
Fell like a falling tear.
What is the eye of man,
This little star that can
See all those stars at once,
Multitudinous suns,
Making of them a wind
That blows across the mind?
If eye can nothing see
But what is part of me,
I ask and ask again
With a persuasive pain,
What thing, O God, am I,
this Mote and mystery
THE WHITE BLACKBIRD
Gulls that in meadows stand,
The sea their native land,
Are not so white as you
Flitting from bough to bough
You who are white as sin
To your black kith and kin.
looks skywards for his inspiration in his main poem, rather than, as he so often does, to whimsical earth-bound observations. His Selected Poems are published by Carcanet at £9.95.
THE STARS
The stars rushed forth tonight
Fast on the faltering light;
So thick those stars did lie
No room was left for sky;
And to my upturned stare
A snow-storm filled the air.
#
Stars lay like yellow pollen
That from a flower has fallen;
And single stars I saw
Crossing themselves in awe;
Some stars in sudden fear
Fell like a falling tear.
~
What is the eye of man,
This little star that can
See all those stars at once,
Multitudinous suns,
Making of them a wind
That blows across the mind?
~
If eye can nothing see
But what is part of me,
I ask and ask again
With a persuasive pain,
What thing, O God, am I,
this Mote and mystery
THE WHITE BLACKBIRD
Gulls that in meadows stand,
The sea their native land,
Are not so white as you
Flitting from bough to bough
You who are white as sin
To your black kith and kin.
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