Craig Raine Poems

Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings
and some are treasured for their markings --

they cause the eyes to melt
...

Divorced, but friends again at last,
we walk old ground together
in bright blue uncomplicated weather.
We laugh and pause
...

'and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence'
-- George Eliot, Middlemarch
...

So how is life with your new bloke?
Simpler, I bet. Just one stroke
of his quivering oar and the skin
of the Thames goes into a spin,
...

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

A pair of blackbirds
warring in the roses,
one or two poppies
...

(for Rona, Jeremy, Sam & Grace)

All the lizards are asleep--
perched pagodas with tiny triangular tiles,
...

The sun rose like a tarnished
looking-glass to catch the sun

and flash His hot message
...

A cabbage white:
A bluster at the edge of sight,
...