Julian Mann Poems

All my sorrows slept
In your hair last night
For once they were
As tired as I
...

Dreaming westward where fields roll
I may catch up with Edward's soul
By a half gap in a hedge where a stile
Did once lend a hand to poets while
...

As when I from out
the church porch did look
upon a sky a pale moon had lit
and walking to an ancient tree
...

I do not know why
I keep my favourites in my mind.
When asked who I like,
I rarely say he who is most like me.
...

There is no perfect time to do anything,
So I decided to get off the train
At the last moment to wander
A footpath to an inn;
...

Running, walking, standing,
We were always together,
Down the farm lane
In the sweet hedged weather.
...

I

What right have I under oak
To turn away a thought
...

Setting: February. Light-brushed woods. Lean sheep slopes.
Dry-mudded lanes; often running straight through woods
whimsically; or rising to walkways above the bright air.
Up here
...

The air is awash
With green tongues
Rising above a chainsaw,
As meditation shifts
...

An obscurer:
little shelf supporting vanity.
Inside, I kept for the first line
ideal and fancy
...